


Crooked Teeth and a Black Eye

by biohazardBroski



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, Joshler centric, Multi, Polyamory, also violence, everyone's a senior, fob and Brendon make a cameo towards the end, homophobia but I tried to make it as little triggering as possible, some more mature language, subtle hints of makeouts like twice? but it's not explicit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-20 04:52:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4774238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biohazardBroski/pseuds/biohazardBroski
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His teeth were crooked, and Josh cursed at himself.  He wanted to memorize his teeth, but they weren’t straight like his own.  Tyler dropped the ball to the floor and dribbled with it to the hoop,  going for a jump shot.<br/>Josh realized he was still staring, Tyler looked at him, smile fading.  He missed his legendary shot in that one moment between them.  The ball collided straight into Josh’s face, knocking the glasses off his face and he stumbled to the ground.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crooked Teeth and a Black Eye

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first debut to Ao3 and even my first bandom fic, who would've thought it'd be this ridiculous, not me. Also it may turn into a series if it needs to be, but as a standalone this is fine.

It was the second morning of high school, Tyler was in the fieldhouse along with other seniors and underclassmen.  He was shooting hoops in a routine by himself, and he prefered it that way.  Tryouts for the basketball team was going to start soon, and he planned to join varsity again this year.  A single hoop dedicated to himself out of the many in the padded room, nobody else from the basketball team had gym this hour.

He felt crowded at times, but nobody bumped into him or knocked the ball out of his hands to be a jerk.  Many from past experience knew that Tyler was ferocious.  When he was attached to the moment, he clung onto his basketball like a magnet.  He wasn’t a good runner, but he was very quick on his feet.  He could land a flawless three-point shot, he can dunk over anyone taller than him.  If someone got in between him and his passion, he’d stare you down and engrave your face on his mental hate list.

Nobody dared to interrupt him, he didn’t smile very often.

Josh stood up, finished tying his shoes.  He stretched his arms and legs one more time and began his jog around the track.  He was quiet and didn’t talk much.  He didn’t join any sports, being in a team gave him anxiety.  Always self concious of what people thought of him, but when he cranked up the volume on his ipod, jogging to the beat from his earbuds, he felt alone.  Josh paced himself on the curves, and ran on the straights of the track.

Josh saw him, and slowed down.  He wasn’t even on a curve yet but something caught his eye.  It was _the_ Tyler, stone cold and close-hearted.  And he was smiling, spinning a basketball on his finger.  There was no mistaking it, it was pure pride.  Josh felt drawn in, he felt like looking into the deepest secrets of the world.  It wasn’t everyday you get to see this kid smile.  

His teeth were crooked, and Josh cursed at himself.  He wanted to memorize his teeth, but they weren’t straight like his own.  Tyler dropped the ball to the floor and dribbled with it to the hoop,  going for a jump shot.

Josh realized he was still staring, Tyler looked at him, smile fading.  He missed his legendary shot in that one moment between them.  The ball collided straight into Josh’s face, knocking the glasses off his face and he stumbled to the ground.

 _Oh no he saw me, he probably thinks I’m a freak or something_ , Josh thought.  He rubbed his eyebrow where he took the brunt of the hit.   Through his blurry vision he saw Tyler running up to him, and crouching next to Josh. In defence he threw up his arms over his chest and face.  He didn’t even notice Tyler asking him if he was fine, his glasses in Tyler’s palm.

A whistle blew from across the fieldhouse, and they both looked over.  An angry coach trotted over to the two, and pushed them apart.  “No fighting, you’re being sent to non-compliance.  Any further complaints and I’ll send you to your deans!”

Tyler couldn’t tell the coach that it was a simple accident, but from what the coach saw was Tyler picking on an innocent kid.

Josh was too embarrassed to say he was distracted and it was all an honest mistake.  He looked down, not wanting to meet the eyes of everyone in the fieldhouse staring at the scene.

Tyler wanted to help Josh up, but couldn’t risk it from a gym teacher whose day had already been ruined.  Tyler and Josh walked together staring at the ground towards the doors.  Hearing behind them the coach talk into his walkie talkie about the two hooligans making their way down.

They passed the doorframe, Tyler sliding Josh’s glasses into his hand.  A security guard was waiting to escort the two.

Who would have guessed it would take two days to be caught in this mess?  Tyler had visited this place before for similar reasons, probably the reason why the coach assumed the worst.  Josh on the other hand had never gotten in trouble, and he was visibly nervous.  The infraction was small and didn’t escalate to the worst of fears, they wouldn’t get a call home about it.  But for the rest of the period had to sit at desks pushed up to the white bricked wall, still in their gym suits nonetheless.  Being monitored by a staff member who really was not in the mood to be watching two seniors.

Tyler had his head down on his arms, looking at Josh through one eye.

Josh could feel his gaze on him, and it didn’t help.  He probably spoke to this kid once throughout the entirety of high school, and felt like he had already been on Tyler’s hate list. The looming thoughts put him in a bad spot, he bounced his leg repeatedly and turned a broken pencil over and over again in his hands.

After what felt like minutes, Josh heard a tapping noise from Tyler.  He glanced over and saw him tapping his finger in a slow tempo, like a metronome.  Josh subconsciously bounced his leg to it, and saw Tyler’s eyes crease.  He was smiling but his arm was covering his mouth.  Josh raised his eyebrows at a thought he had, and began tapping the pencil into a rhythmic beat.  It was at a faster count but it still stayed in tune with Tyler and Josh’s beat.

Josh imagined himself drumming to the beat of the song he was listening to in the fieldhouse.  Tyler kept up, as if he knew exactly what song Josh had in mind.  Even to stop at the same time when the melody ended in Josh’s head.  They looked at each other and giggled, sneering perfect and imperfect teeth at each other.

“No talking you two!”

The bell eventually rang and the two were relieved.  Josh ran to go change into his normal clothes before heading to his next class, Tyler stood up and thanked the staff member for watching them.  Receiving a questionable look in response.

 ****  


Throughout his whole entire day, Josh kept on hearing comments from behind his back and discrete whispering in class about what had happened.

“I heard Tyler punched him in the face today.”

“I thought he got shoved to the ground?”

“He probably deserved it if Tyler went after him.”

Josh wanted nothing more than to turn on his music and drown out the lies spewing in front of him.  Not a single person went up and asked him what really happened.

Tyler didn’t have it any better, he was organizing props in his theater class hearing rumors spread behind his back.

“Poor kid, I’d hate to imagine how that happened.”

“He fucking decked that nerd so hard, you could hear his ass hit the ground from across the school.”

“Did you even see it happen or did someone tell you that?”

Tyler’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t want to turn around and cause anymore trouble.  He just wanted this day to be over already.

Tyler was pulling out of the parking lot, he drove down the aisle and stopped to let a kid pass.  There was another behind him, head down and he wore a cap to shade his eyes.  But Tyler could recognize him, he rolled  his window down and leaned out,  “Hey kid!”

He didn’t look up and kept on walking, now in front of Tyler’s car.  He honked his horn twice and startled him.  An earbud popped out and Josh was standing staring at Tyler, “Get in, I’ll drive you home.”

Before he could reject the offer, the cars behind Tyler began honking for him to move.  But Josh knew Tyler could be stubborn enough and wait all day in that spot.  He felt Tyler’s eyes narrow at him from behind the sunglasses.  The door clicked to unlock as Josh approached the passenger seat, and closed the door behind him.  He expected Tyler to speed off, but he still waited for Josh to buckle in.  Taking his turn smoothly instead of zipping out of the parking lot like most seniors.

“You really didn’t have to, you know,” Josh started.

“You live two blocks away from my house, I see you sometimes actually,” Tyler responded, “Plus I owe you one, since it looks like you might have trouble seeing the ground you walk on going home.”

Josh didn’t expect Tyler to sound this calm and collective.  Tyler had his hand stuck out the window letting the air run through his fingers, and Josh was tempted to do the same.

Josh took out his other earbud, thinking it was more polite since he was now in a place to talk.  He paid attention to the music from the stereo, “Hey, you have some nice music tastes.  I never heard of them, are they an indie band or something?”  

Tyler grinned, his bottom teeth were more crooked than Josh initially thought, but it was charming.  “I wrote this.”

Josh laughed in disbelief, “No way, you’re joking right?”

Tyler gestured to the radio, his hands completely off the wheel for a brief second, “Listen closely.”

Josh did and picked up on the same vocal range as Tyler’s, “That’s so sick.”

“Sick as frick.”

“It’s uh, it’s really good.  I’m- I’m not saying that just so you don’t kick me out, I mean it.”

“I can tell you like it.”

They took another turn and drove down a neighborhood road that was arched with tree branches.  The view was pleasant, and Josh looked out of the window to take it in more.  When he pulled himself back in he said to Tyler, “I’m sorry about what happened today.”

“Why are you sorry?  You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But everyone thinks that way.”

“And so they will.  Is there a problem with that?”  Josh didn’t say anything back to Tyler, knowing he had a point.  “Wanna shoot some hoops at my house?”

“Uh, sure man.”

Tyler parked across the street from his house, and pointed it out to Josh, “It’s that one, if you need to go inside for a drink of water you know.  Just in case, man.  And you can leave your bag in here, I’ll drop you off at your house.”

He was so generous to Josh that it honestly frightened him a bit.  Tyler stuck his sunglasses away in his glove compartment and checked both ways before opening the door to get out.  Josh didn’t know whether to be surprised or expectant to see Tyler in his gym uniform still.  He turned around and swayed his arms, having a skip to his step, “Come on Josh, let’s go finish gym class.”

“Uh, Tyler?”

“Yeah?”

Josh closed the car door and walked around the front.  Unlike Tyler, Josh had changed after gym.  “You want to borrow shorts?”

“Do you have any that’d fit?”

“Fit what?  Your style?  Maybe.  I’ll go see if I can find some.  The hoop is out by the garage door, you can go inside the garage to find a basketball.”

“Alright.”

And with that, Tyler disappeared into his house.  Josh made his way up to his driveway and saw the backboard hanging above the garage door.  He looked around to make sure nobody was outside thinking he was breaking in to steal from the Joseph’s.  The side door was unlocked, and he found a basketball right within arms reach, which didn’t shock him.

As he backed out of the garage, the back door of the house opened and Tyler came out.  Pairs of shorts were draped on his arms and he held some in his hands.  “I couldn’t figure out which fits your style so I just brought them all out.”  Josh looked down and laughed, he shook his head and dribbled the ball as he walked to close the gap between Tyler and himself.  He held the ball steady and picked out a black pair of shorts.  “You’re such a simple man.”

Josh went in the garage and changed, he felt like being formal and going inside would waste Tyler’s time.  He didn’t want to be put on that hate list for real this time.

Remerging from the garage, Tyler had folded the others over the fence.  Josh put his jeans next to those and took off his jacket and left his ipod in the pocket.  Josh clapped his hands together, “So, how’re we going to play?”

“Just shoot some hoops and talk.  Nothing too much.”

“Okay, man.”

“Here’s the deal though, if I make a basket.  Then I get to ask you a question about yourself.  And if I miss then I don’t.  We’ll take turns shooting. The same thing applies to you.”

“Sounds cool to me,” Josh gave it no second thought.

“Cool,”  Tyler began first.  He didn’t even dribble the ball and took his first shot.  And it landed cleanly in the net.  Josh was staring at the ball with awe.  “Favorite color?”

Josh stumbled on his thoughts, “Uh, red.”  The ball rolled to Josh’s feet and he picked it up.  He felt more comfortable dribbling it a few times before making a shot and having it make the net, not as graceful as Tyler’s,  “Favorite type of music?”

“My music.”

Josh couldn’t help but chuckle, Tyler tried to sound pretentious but it certainly didn’t come off as such.

And they kept at it, for a good while it was a smooth alternation between both of them.  “First job?”

“I work at the local music store.  Actually, when I was in middle school I’d visit so often to ask the biggest most tatted guy for music recs.  Because my mom doesn’t like that kinda stuff.  He landed me a job there and I like it… First instrument?”

“A toy piano my mom gave me for Christmas… Hobbies?”

“Well, I work out a bit.  And I like to run with music, at the music store I like to beat the crap out of the drumsets they got… Tea or coffee?”

“Neither, I’ll drink Redbull.”

Josh stopped before making a shot, “You serious?  But Coffee’s really good though.”

“If I ever get a cup I’ll give it to you, I don’t like having dog breath.  It’s weird to sing when your mouth smells weird.”

“You’re crazy, you’re such a baby.”

“A baby boy,” Tyler corrected him.  He took his shot, “Got a girlfriend?”

“No, not yet," Josh went to make a shot but missed.

"Ah sorry about that man, rules are rules," Tyler retrieved the ball and made his next shot, "Do you like anyone?”

“Uh, maybe?  Well, there are some cute girls, but I don’t talk to any of them and I’m sure they all have boyfriends already.”  Josh attempted another shot, and missed again, he felt a twinge in his jaw.

But once again Tyler made his shot, “Have you ever thought about kissing a guy before?”

 _Oh fuck_ , Josh thought.  He immediately thought of how Tyler caught Josh staring at him earlier, did he have a weird look on his face?  Did he know he was staring at his teeth?  He looked at Tyler, his mouth was loosely hung open and he moved his eyes up to meet Tyler’s. _He’s going to think I’m lying if I say no, but then I’d be lying if I said yes._  “Can’t say that I have.”

Tyler kept his gaze with Josh for a beat longer than normal, “Just wondering.”

Josh felt a bit of relief, picking up the ball and finally making another shot, “Do you like anybody?”

“Yeah.”

“Who?”

“You didn’t make another shot, it’s my turn.”

Josh groaned, he knew Tyler was going to trap him with another weird question now.  He didn’t even look when Tyler took his shot.

“Oh..”  Tyler’s arms were still suspended from his shot, the ball had bounced off the rim and went into the yard.

Josh had a weight lifted off his chest, and gave a smug smile to Tyler before going through the gate to grab the ball.  In his state of euphoria, he tried at making a shot from that long distance.  The ball whipped the net on it’s way down.  Tyler clapped, “That’s easily a 3-point shot there, I’m a bit impressed there Joshy.”

Josh waltzed back into the driveway, “Thank you, I love my fans.  Now who do _you_ like?”

Tyler looked at Josh, “My girlfriend, Jenna.  Probably one of the girls you assumed had boyfriends already.”  Tyler stepped towards the ball and kicked it up to his hands, “You want to keep playing or no?”

“No offense, but not really.”

“That’s cool, you need something to drink inside?”

“That’d be nice, can I change inside too?”

“Yeah, no problem.

Josh walked out of the bathroom and into the kitchen where Tyler was, pulling out two cold bottles of water from the fridge for Josh and himself.  “Here’s your shorts, I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to put them in your room.”

“If you were so unsure you could have absolutely walked off with them and I wouldn’t have noticed.”

“You seem like the kind of guy who would though.”

Tyler grinned at that, “Maybe I was just trying to give you ideas?”  He didn’t close the fridge yet, and grabbed an ice pack.  “You need this for your eye?”

“Ah no, it’s fine it doesn’t hurt.”  Despite his denial, Tyler went up to Josh and pressed the cold pack to his bruised eyebrow.  He ignored the frigid temperature creeping on his fingers.  He felt Josh loosen his tension and sighed softly.  Taking the ice pack from Tyler and keeping it pressed against his head, “Maybe I did need that.”

“Do you suppress a lot of things too?”

“What do you mean?”  Josh felt worried again.

“I know you don’t talk to many people at school.  And you probably don’t have many friends.  But if you need someone to talk to, I will listen.  Even if you just need to scream into your phone, I will listen to every word.  You don’t have to hear me talk back.  Don’t let your mind wander in the dark parts alone.”  Tyler handed Josh a slip of paper, and didn’t make note of it.

Josh knew it was his number, “Thanks for letting me know.”

“Going home now?”

“I’m not in a hurry, but we can start going.”

“Alright.”

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow, okay?” Tyler dropped the brunet in front of his house, waving goodbye.  But not leaving until he saw Josh walk inside the house.  Josh was a bit reluctant to leave the car, wanting to finish listening to one of Tyler’s songs in the car.

“Who was that?”  Josh’s mom asked, seeing Tyler drive off from the window.

“A friend I made today, we were playing basketball earlier.  I gotta get ready for work soon.”

During break at work, Josh found himself drumming to the beat of Tyler’s music instead of what was playing through his headphones.  It was the most natural thing he had ever played.  Before break was over, he pulled out the number from his pocket and texted, _‘Hey can I get a copy of your music? -Josh’_

 _‘sure thing.’_ Tyler texted back, almost instantly.

As expected, Tyler showed up to pick up Josh the next morning.  They said their hellos and drove off after Josh buckled in.  Josh was glad he could walk into the school and joke with Tyler.

They sat in the parking lot for a while, Josh clung into his seatbelt and his breathing was more rapid.  “You okay?”  Tyler asked.

Josh shook his head, “I feel very nervous today, I don’t know why.”

“Did you brush your teeth today?”

“What?  Yeah of course I did.”

“You have dog breath,” Tyler unbuckled and reached in the back for his drawstring. “If you’re worried about what people will say to you, then they obviously don’t know the whole story.”

Josh decided to trust Tyler, “Okay.”

Tyler reached over and touched the lid from Josh’s hat.  Pulling it off his messy brown hair and fitting it back over backwards, “Now you look so sick.”

Josh looked at himself from the mirror, he had to admit it didn’t look too bad.

They got out and walked toward the doors to the school, side by side and ignoring what other kids thought. Tyler was only a step ahead to open the doors for Josh to let him pass.  “Mind if we stop by to say hi to Jenna?”

“Uh, no. No it’s cool.  It’d be nice to meet her too.”

They walked into the clutter of students, many meandering around and others located in their friend pods.  They both found Jenna talking to a group of friends, she saw Tyler first and smiled.  When she saw Josh, he felt his heart warm and his nerves calmed.  Tyler took Jenna’s hand and kissed her softly.  Jenna told her friends goodbye and the three continued to walk down the hall together.

“So this is who you kept on texting me about all day yesterday,”  Jenna said as they furthered away from her friends.

 _Oh no_ , Josh thought.  Worried what Tyler might have spoken about.

“Yep, this is Josh and he likes my music.”

Jenna turned to Josh, who was on Tyler’s right, “Tyler doesn’t have many people to talk to.  It’s practically just myself and Mark who he talks to.”

“He doesn’t have many friends either,” Tyler said back.

“So how much did Tyler actually tell you?”  Josh asked.

Jenna smiled, “He still doesn’t know that much about you.  But he _did_ tell me how much he liked about you.”

Tyler looked down, his face turning a shade of pink, “Josh never thought about kissing boys, so I have no reason to leave you for him.”

“That’s good to hear.”

They dropped Jenna to her first period class and the remaining two walked together to the locker room.

Tyler didn’t even change, he wore his gym suit back to school.  It was more like he dropped Josh off to go change and waited outside the door for him.  Standing idly by, hands in his pockets and staring at the tiled floor.  He only looked up when he knew Josh walked out, already memorizing the way he talks and the sound his feet make on the cold tile.  Side by side they walked to the fieldhouse on a Friday morning, talking about what classes they’re each taking for their last year.

They walked through the double doors, both saying polite ‘good mornings’ to the coach.  The coach looked up from his clipboard and looked at them both confused, and nodded back.  Josh and Tyler walked around the coach to sit at the aluminum bleachers, waiting for their teacher to take attendance before going off for fitness day.

They seated themselves both on the highest seats and to the farthest edge, sitting about 6 feet above the ground.  Josh told Tyler an embarrassing story from middle school as they waited, stuttering a bit trying to recall as much details.  But Tyler was patient, and laughed with secondhand embarrassment.  He clapped his hands together and squirmed around to keep himself together, trying to imagine the scene but could only picture the scene happening with the present Josh.

His laugh was loud, and he didn’t hide it.  It resonated through Josh, maybe mentally.  But he felt more secure and proud to see that side of Tyler.  Earning confused looks from other students, many seeing this for the first time too.

A whistle blew and everyone quieted down to listen to what was open to participate, and attendance was taken from all of the classes.  When dismissed to go to their activities, Tyler pushed himself off the bleachers with such ease and landed quietly to the ground.  Josh was still standing up when he looked down to see Tyler’s face at his feet level. “Come on, let’s go shoot some hoops today.”

Today was a friendly game between them.  No questions asked about each other.  At one point during their game, a cocky sophomore tried to knock the ball out of Josh’s hand, but Tyler stepped in between.  The sophomore backed off after a while, not wanting to get caught in confrontation like yesterday.  They continued their game in peace.  There was little talking between the two, but they preferred it that way.

That afternoon, Tyler and Josh sat in Tyler’s car, waiting for the other students to leave so it’d be less hectic to get out.

“No way, you got grounded for getting your ears pierced?”  Tyler asked.

“Yeah, I mean I did them myself since I couldn’t go to a kiosk in the mall.  So that’s probably why my mom flipped out, but she kinda doesn’t like to see me being too ‘rebellious’,”  Josh rolled his eyes remembering those two months he called ‘the dark ages’.

“Dude, you need to get out of the house sometime.  Like.. you need to sleep over at my house.  But without the sleeping part because we need to catch up, so like staying over, and do some freaky stuff.”

“W-what do you mean by that?”  Josh panicked a bit.

“Well you like music, and I like music, so we can like go scream in my basement.  My parents are used to that already.  And once we get too tired of screaming, we can play some intense Mario Kart.  Staying up long enough, and go sit on the roof to watch the sunrise,"  Tyler offered.

“I don’t know man, I never let myself go that far before.  It might be a lot to take in.”

“If you’re up for it then you can text me about it.  It doesn’t have to be right now, since you gotta tell your mom about it too.  And get homework done before coming over, and stuff.”

Josh thought about it, it really didn’t seem all a bad idea.  And he figured his mom would be fine with letting Josh go out.  He’s almost old enough to be considered an adult anyways.  And it’s his senior year, the start of the school year too.  A nice way to shake off any lingering stress before the work gets overloaded.  “I’ll text you as soon as I get an answer from my mom.”

Tyler grinned, “Awesome, and would you be uncomfortable if I invited my buddy Mark?  He’s not an angry jock or anything, just a quiet tech guy.”

“Well the more the merrier I guess?”

Tyler drove out of the lot, many cars were gone by now and it was less stressful.

“Don’t forget this,”  Tyler ejected his CD and handed it to Josh, it was a bland CD scrawled on was ‘No Phun Intended’, and under that was a list of song names.

Josh completely forgot that Tyler wanted to let him borrow it, he took it and thanked Tyler.  Promising to give it back after he rips the music to his laptop.

Waiting until Josh got inside his house before driving off, Tyler felt his heart began to race.  He sped off to his house, pulling into the driveway and began texting his friend Mark of the plans for tomorrow night.

In no time he replied back, _‘I’ll be there’_.

He then went to text Jenna about what was happening, and how excited he’d be.  When he stepped through the threshold of the front door, he received a text from Josh, _‘My mom is okay with it, she just needs your number.. and both your parents numbers, and your address, and the time Id be leaving too, sorry about that’_

He relayed the information to Josh, hitting send and getting another text from Jenna.  She was excited for them and was going out to watch movies with her friends that day anyways.  Tyler was practically prancing around the kitchen, juggling three conversations in his hand.  His heart was racing, and he felt lightheaded, maybe he should have stopped to get some lunch.

Tyler insisted on picking up Josh the next day.

_‘But I just live a few streets away, I can walk’_

_‘no, it’s weird to walk with a backpack and sleeping bag.’_

_‘Its not like I hate walking, Tyler its fine’_

_‘you’re the guest and i’m the gentlemen.’_

_‘Dude, Im about to leave anyways’_

Tyler didn’t respond, Josh having a false sense of hope.  Packing in his ipod and Tyler’s CD into his bag, zipping it up and slinging it over his shoulder.  From his bedroom, he heard a car honk outside and understood why Tyler didn’t text back.

“You’re friend is here to pick you up!  Josh, are you even ready?”  his mom called from another room.

“I’m making sure I got everything!” he called back.

Josh heard the doorbell ring as he stepped into the hallway, _Tyler, please_.  He heard his mom open the door and an excited noise from her.

“Hello, Mrs. Dun.  How are you?”  Tyler asked.

“Oh I’m fine, I should thank you for this really.  Josh does need some time out that isn’t school nor work.”

Josh stepped up next to his mom, “I told you that you didn’t need to come get me.”

“But I’ll always come to the door being the host, and to take your stuff inside the car too.”  Tyler held his hands out for Josh’s belongings, who was reluctant to hand it over at first.

“You’re so well mannered, I bet any girl would be lucky to have you.”

Josh noticed Tyler slightly wince, “I actually do have a girlfriend, and she is the most stunning person I’ve met.. Josh is a close second.”

Tyler took Josh’s sleeping bag and duffle bag, saying one last goodbye and wishing her a lovely evening. _She’s gonna so kill me later_ , he thought.  Putting Josh’s belongings to his trunk and driving them back to his house.

Mark had texted Josh saying that he’d be there a bit later than expected, so it was just Josh and Tyler for now.

“So, what are we going to do now?”  Josh asked.

“Looks like we got the house to ourselves until later tonight, family all went out to some relatives.  They’ll be gone for a while, but for now it’s just you and me.”  Tyler shrugged his shoulders.  “We can go scream from my basement.”

“Will we be able to hear Mark ring the doorbell though?”

“He knows how to open a door, we’re cool.”

Josh pursed his lips and nodded.  Tyler held the door open for Josh, sidestepping through the threshold to fit himself and his bags.

The basement was chilly, the walls were padded with some cheap sound-proofing.  “My dad redid the basement when he noticed how serious I was about music.  I owe it to him that I can scream inside and not outside.”  Josh looked all around, he was really impressed at the work done.  The room was covered with wires connecting to stereos, music stands, and a keyboard sitting on a desk.  “Mark is my guy who helps me put together my stuff, so unfortunately we can’t record our first smash hit right now.”

But Josh wasn’t really paying full attention to Tyler, in the corner of the room was a large objected draped in a black sheet, “Mind if I check what this is?”

Tyler snickered to himself, “Go ahead.”

He knew, and Josh knew he knew.  He approached the object and carefully lifted the drape.  Underneath was an old drum set, stowed away but not forgotten.  Josh marveled at the piece, “Dude..  You got any drumsticks?”

Tyler whistled and Josh turned around, tossing him a pair of drumsticks that were tied together by a rubber band.  Josh eagerly caught them as he heard Tyler close a drawer, “Go nuts, man.”

“How you do even have a set?  You don’t strike me as a drummer.. no offense.”

Tyler rolled his eyes, “I can play drums _well_.  But most of the stuff down here is leftovers from when I actually tried to start my own band,” he opened up his laptop and scrolled through his music library.  Trying to figure out which song would fit them both to play, one that Josh would definitely know.

“Put on one of your own songs,” Josh offered.  He was already sitting on the stool waiting to play.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.  You do the vocals and I’ll just play.”

Josh didn’t admit that he listened to Tyler’s CD all throughout yesterday.  He didn’t say anything when Tyler played the first song on the list and knew how it started.  He played to his heart’s content, and listening to Tyler singing while playing on his piano.  They were only going to play one song together, but forgot to pause the track.  It wasn’t until in the middle of their third song that one of the drumsticks fell from Josh’s hand.  He halted playing and Tyler’s voice died down.  They were both drenched with sweat, silent except for the laptop blaring out music.  Tyler reached over and muted his laptop, and looked towards Josh.  It took a while to register how amazing they sounded together, and they both broke into a laughing fit.

Tyler regained his breath,crossing his arms over his piano and leaning over, “Hey Josh?”

“Yeah?”

“I think I should be open with you about something.”

Josh wondered what Tyler would have told him, he saw him ponder over it.  A look of worry on his face as he looked down, biting his lip.  But they heard footsteps above them, and trailing down the steps to the basement, “Maybe later.”

Mark emerged to the basement, he still had his shades on when he walked in “How can you guys see in this kind of lighting?”  He sounded serious.

“Mark..”  Tyler started.

“What?”

Tyler pointed to his own face, making a motion of taking glasses off.

“Oh!”  Mark lifted his sunglasses to the top of his head, “I completely forgot.  Hey Tyler, and this is Josh?”

Tyler and Josh nodded in unison, “‘Sup Mark,” Josh greeted.

Mark picked up the drumstick laying on the floor, handing it back to Josh, “You probably dropped this.”

Tyler sat, watching them both from behind his desk.  “We should go out to buy some stuff for tonight,” he offered.

“That’s fine but I know how to appreciate myself and sleep tonight.  I’ll still go with you though,” Mark said.

“Okay, sweet.”  Josh said, wiping off the sweat from his forehead.  And setting the drumsticks on top of the set.

They left after 4pm to the store, grabbing chips off the shelves, cases of redbull and coffee, and some other unhealthy junk food.  They stopped at Taco Bell afterward and ordered some food.  Eating inside and forgetting that one of them had put a carton of ice cream in the car.  They sat back inside of Tyler’s car after they finished eating, and immediately smelled the chocolate from the back. Looking at each other with horror, finding it melted and seeped through the cardboard container.  It wouldn’t have been too bad if the shopping bag didn’t have a hole in it.

It wasn’t until 7pm that they were able to clean the mess up from the car.  Tyler’s car would have a nice smell to it for a while, but hoping they cleaned enough so any remains wouldn’t mold over.

They settled down in the basement, all of their shirts were soaked courtesy of Tyler.  Spraying Mark and Josh with the garden hose.  In his fit of laughing, Mark restrained Tyler from moving.  Though Tyler was easily fit enough to shake his friend off, he couldn’t bring himself to stop laughing.  Josh took the hose from Tyler and doused him in revenge, his laughing turned into shrieks from cold water stinging his skin through his clothes.  Now wrapped in towels instead of blankets, they were taking turns playing Mario Kart, loser rotates out.  Josh won the majority of games against Tyler, who threw a fit that he was so close to winning each time.  Mark was more calm and collective with playing and smoked both Tyler and Josh easily.  It was around 10pm when they stopped playing, Tyler’s family came over and they went upstairs to greet them all.

“Dude your parents are so chill,” Josh noted when they were back in the basement.

“You think so?”  It never really crossed Tyler’s mind until it was brought up.  “I guess it’s because I’m a good kid.”

Mark scoffed, “Not all the time.”

Josh was curious now.

Tyler sat and thought, “When was I ever a bad kid?  Well, I guess you could count that one time I was throwing pointy stuff at a box.  Indoors nonetheless, but my parents were watching so I thought I was so cool. I threw a knife too high and it broke through the window.”

“Did you really?”  Josh giggled, trying to imagine how that went down.

“I thought I was so sweet.”

It wasn’t until 1am when they finished a terrible rom-com they found on the tv.  Each of them making ridiculous commentary instead of truly paying attention.  The couch they sat on was clearly big enough for all of them to be spacious.  Mark sitting on the far left, Josh on the far right.  But Tyler leaned against Josh and stuck his legs out on the rest of the couch.

Mark began to fall asleep reluctantly.  So they decided to tell each other what they wanted to do with their lives.  Mark loved to travel with Tyler, he could see Tyler’s passion in what he wants to do.  Mark wants to support Tyler in the decisions he makes and be there to help.  He wasn’t musically talented as Tyler, but he was fine with getting Tyler the resources he needs.

Tyler talked about how he is unsure about juggling sports and music.  Knowing that basketball would get him a good scholarship for college, but that’s about it.

Josh stuttered a bit trying to think of what he wanted to do.  He ran a hand through his hair and thought.  “I never really pictured myself getting anywhere big.  I like to beat some drums but I can’t do anything really until I get out of the house when I can do all I want under my own roof.”

“Like what exactly?”  Tyler asked.

“Well.. I’m honestly not very comfortable with how I look.  I’m like, a huge nerd.  I’d like to do some crazy stuff like get more piercings, get some sweet tattoos, and to dye my hair.  Maybe lose the glasses too, those are a pain to get fixed if they break.”

Tyler sat up, “Come on, let’s go.”

Mark and Josh looked at Tyler with confusion, “Go where?  It’s past curfew.”

“Let’s go dye your hair, you’re not under your mom’s roof you’re under mine.  Since we can’t go get tattoos or piercings without an adult, and Mark isn’t an adult.”

“We’re not doing this, plus nothing’s open,” Josh regretted ever bringing it up.

“We’ll find somewhere, come on.”  Tyler began pulling on Josh’s arm.  “Dude it’s gonna be so unlit.”

Josh didn’t comprehend how he was able to convince himself it was a good idea.  The next thing he knew he was in sitting next to Tyler in the car and shaking with excitement, or maybe it was the air conditioning.  Mark was in the back recording on his phone, trusting his intuition about this.

They found a Walmart after half an hour of driving, Mark was exhausted at this point but Tyler and Josh ran their mouths talking all jittery.  Their cases of Redbull and Coffee were half empty when they left to the store.

“Will one be enough?”  Josh asked.  Tyler was bent over looking comparing quality over cost of the dyes.

He looked at Josh when he heard his question,  standing upright and running his hands through Josh’s brown hair.  “Hm, you’re hair is thick.  We can get two just to be safe.”  Tyler didn’t admit that he was envious of Josh’s hair.

“Do you even know how to dye hair?”  Josh asked, nervous once again.

“Well, I can read instructions so that’s close enough.”  Tyler responded, putting a towel around Josh’s shoulders.  “We gotta bleach it first, dude how about a red fauxhawk?”

Josh grinned at the idea, “Let’s do it.”

In no time while the bleach was setting, Josh worried it was staying too long.  “Uh, Tyler are you sure you know what you’re doing?”  Oh god, it smells like it’s burning my hair.. Tyler!”

“Relax buddy, it’s not light enough yet.”

“Tyler it’s itchy, are you sure?”

Tyler didn’t respond, and Mark wasn’t helping either, quietly filming the traumatic experience.

“Alright dunk your head under the faucet,” Tyler said,  and Josh raced to the sink. Running his head under the cold water. Sputtering water that fell into his nose and mouth.  “Dude please don’t drown yourself!”

It was now 4am, Mark finally got to sleep and Tyler waited on the couch for Josh to finish running his head under the sink for a second time.  This time to rinse the dye out.

The door opened and Tyler turned his head, Josh was pouting.  Tyler couldn’t help but cover his mouth from gasping too loud.  Mark stirred awake, looking at Josh tiredly, “Your hair is so pink.”

Tyler burst out laughing.

“You knew didn’t you!”  Josh accused.

“No, no!”  Tyler said in between laughter, “I swear I thought I grabbed the red ones.”  He tried again to look at Josh seriously, but collapsed again into laughter.  Josh went over to Tyler and pretended to go strangle him, but instead caught himself tickling Tyler and find that more enjoyable to see the thin boy squirm with tears in his eyes.  Tyler’s face was red from laughing so much, trying to swat Josh away.

“Can you keep it down a bit?” Mark mumbled.

“That’s what you get, baby boy,”  Josh whispered, he moved away from Tyler to let him breathe again.

Tyler finally calmed himself down to speak coherently, “Sorry Mark.  Man I wish you could have recorded that.”

“I did, but now I want to sleep.”

“You’re the man, Mark.”

Tyler got up and walked around the room, stopping to look out one of the windows that was up next to the ceiling.  “Josh, let’s go watch the sunrise outside.”

“Are you serious?  We can’t see it that well.”

“No it’s okay, I have a ladder.  We can sit on the garage roof.”

It was 5am when Josh found himself sitting on the garage roof with Tyler.  They had their last cans of Redbull and coffee in their hands.  The sun wasn’t anywhere to be seen yet, but the sky was faintly beginning to light up.  Birds were already chirping in the trees next to them both, as they sat in silence.

Tyler reached over and touched a lock of pink hair, making Josh flinch at the touch at first.  “I think it looks good on you.”

“Are you saying that to make me feel better or..?”

“I’m being serious.”  Tyler hugged his knees, rocking back and forth slightly.  “Hey, Josh.”

“Yeah?”  Tyler stopped rocking and Josh turned towards him.

“I never got to tell you what I wanted to earlier.  Do you still want to hear it?”

“Well duh, you’re the one who said you would listen to anything I have to say.  So I’ll return the favor.”

Tyler looked nervous, but confident at the same time.  “I want to let you know that I’m comfortable with my preferences in girls as I am with guys.  Because I think that is an important thing about myself that I embrace, and I wanted to share that with you.  If I want to be even more honest with you, I could kiss you right now.”

Josh looked away, feeling his face get hot. _What do I even say?_  “I thought you liked Jenna though.”

“I do love her.  That won’t change between Jenna and I.”

“I-I don’t know what to say really?  I’m flattered but, I’m confused what you’re trying to get at. Does Mark know?”

“Yeah he knows, he’s indifferent towards it.”

“Well, uh.  If it makes you feel any better, I won’t stop being your friend because of that.  Because like you said, it’s part of who you are and it’s not fair to either of us if that were to change for the bitter.”

Tyler sighed with relief, “I know you probably think I’m really cool and chill all of the time.  But that seriously took a lot of effort trying to think of how to phrase it without messing up, and without removing details at the same time.”  His voice faltered and cracked in places.

Josh looked over to see Tyler wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, “Aw come on man, you’re gonna make me feel all emotional over this too,” Josh stuck his arms out to either side of him, “You need a hug, Ty?”

“That’d be nice,”  Tyler leaned over and wrapped his arms around Josh, feeling the other boy’s arms clasp around his back and giving him a soft pat of reassurance.

It was 7am and Josh could feel a tingly feeling inside his chest, trying to ignore it.  The sunrise halted to morning, and the scenery was at a standpoint.  They crushed their empty cans and tossed it over the roof.  Tyler climbed down the ladder first, and held it in place for Josh to feel more comfortable descending.  Josh picked up the crushed aluminum and threw it away while Tyler stowed the ladder away in the garage.  They went back inside and sneaked away to the basement.

Tyler pulled out a thin mattress and set it at the foot of the couch, “Like my sweet futon?” he whispered to Josh.

“The best around town,” he replied, unrolling his sleeping bag and setting it to one side of the piece.  He tried to stay quiet enough to not stir Mark, who actually wanted to sleep.  Tyler set a blanket where he would sleep and handed himself and Josh a pillow.  They weren’t going to sleep for long, Josh needed to be home around 11am.

“It’s like a nap, but a really early nap,” Tyler described.  He got up and went to turn the light switch.

“What are you doing?”Josh asked, seeing Tyler walking away.

“Turning off the light, I can’t sleep with it on.”

“Well, I can’t sleep with the lights off,” Josh argued.  He propped himself on his elbows and stared at Tyler, who was glaring at Josh.

“This is my house.”

“I’m your guest, Mark fell asleep, that’s two against one.”

Tyler looked away towards the window, Josh could barely see Tyler’s cheeks moving.  He was grinding his teeth together in annoyance.  “Fine,” he rolled his eyes and walked around the couch.  Josh laid back down and felt the mattress suppress next to him, “Next time they stay off.”

“Thanks, baby boy.”

Tyler grunted in response, his voice muffled by the pillow he put over his head.  He turned his back towards Josh and pulled the covers above his shoulders.  He wasn’t too annoyed with the lights, but the best time to think before sleep is when it’s dark with an ambient noise.  He didn’t remember falling asleep, he stayed awake to listen to Josh snoring and thought about the boy next to him.

It was 10am when Mark woke Tyler up, he stretched and felt a little sore from sleeping on the floor.  “Breakfast is ready if you want something,”  Mark offered, he was curled up in his blanket watching a morning re-run of a teleplay.  

Tyler rubbed his eye and yawned, letting his arms stretch and curling them around the sleeping lump next to him.  Lightly jostling him to awake,  “Come on dog breath, time to get up.”

Josh turned and pinched the slits of his eyes, “It’s too early,” he managed out. He opened his eyes and saw how close his face was to Tyler’s.  His chest rose and fell faster being so close to Tyler. _Why am I like this?  This is like how it was on the roof again, I shouldn’t since we literally slept back to back.  Like I’m sure he grabbed my ass a few times, maybe on accident._ “M-morning, Tyler.”

Tyler pulled away, covering his mouth, “Please tell me your brought your toothbrush, _jeez_.”

“I did, but maybe with that attitude I’ll just use yours instead.”

Tyler turned, raising his eyebrow suggestively, but then remembered he’d rather go without coffee germs on his brush, “Please don’t.”

Tyler pulled himself up on the couch, and turned to Mark.  “Dude, you’re hair looks so messed up,” he told Tyler.

“Thanks bud, I’ll make sure to properly groom myself before I go out today.”

It was a little past 11am, Tyler was parked in Josh’s driveway with Josh sitting in the passenger seat hugging his sleeping bag close, “I don’t want to leave.”

“It’s going to be okay, you didn’t do anything wrong you just wanted to have fun.  Say it was a dare or something.  Text me as soon as you can okay?”

Josh was worried what his mom would say, seeing her son walk in with bright pink hair.  “I don’t regret this,” he said.

Tyler instinctively reached for Josh’s hand, and ran his thumb over his knuckles over and over again for reassurance, “It’s not like she’s gonna ground you from hanging out with me?  We’re not being scandalous.”

Josh looked over to Tyler, he searched his face for confidence, “One more question.”

“Shoot.”

Josh watched the curve of Tyler’s lips as he said that, he hoped his mom couldn’t see through the window right now.  “Can I figure something out about myself, like.. _god_ ,” he couldn’t finish saying what he wanted without stumbling over, “Come closer, just for a second.”

“I don’t see how this is a question, but okay?”  Tyler knitted his eyebrows together, trying not to laugh at Josh’s goofiness.  He unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned over to Josh, he moved closer and stopped himself for a second, “I’m assuming this is what you’re asking?”

Josh closed the gap between them, a soft peck that couldn’t have lasted more than a second.. maybe two.  Tyler pulled back and laughed, clapping his hands together, “I knew it!”

Josh felt his face burn hot, but he didn’t feel embarrassed, “Oh my god,” he breathed out.

“So?  How was I?”

“I’m.. thanks Tyler, holy crap I needed that.  Don’t tell Jenna, unless she won’t get mad.  Then you can tell her.  I gotta bail now, I’ll get in touch as soon as I can.”  Josh gathered his stuff, and tried not to rush out of the car with the lasting excitement.

Tyler honked the horn twice as Josh stepped in front, stopping and looking at Tyler.  He leaned out his window, putting his shades on and calling, “Nice minty freshness!”  and rolled up his window, clicking his seatbelt back in and giving Josh a final wave before Josh unlocked the front door and disappeared inside. _Not scandalous at all._

Tyler drove back home, playing his music Josh returned.  He sat at the stop sign, running his fingers over his lips to simulate how hasty Josh was.

He waited for Josh's text.  Nothing arrived.  Tyler was at his phone all day, exhausted but refusing to sleep on a text.  He even stayed up past his bedtime, lying in bed with his phone illuminating his face.  He only gave up when his brother hissed at Tyler to go to sleep.

It was almost 7am when Tyler pulled in front of Josh’s house, he didn’t even put his car in park when Josh raced out of his house.  He yanked open the passenger door and sat in the car with a sigh.  Black rings under his eyes, and he slumped over.

“Hey, you fine?”  Tyler asked.

Josh shrugged his shoulders, “I could be better.”

“Got grounded?”

He nodded, “Grounded until it fades enough so I can dye it back to normal.  Sorry that I couldn’t text you, that’s gone.”

Tyler ran his hand through his hair, “I forgot something at my house.”  He pulled into the next driveway and turned around to head back home.  Pulling into his driveway skewed, turning the ignition off, silencing his stereo, “Be right back.”

Sprinting inside, reemerging and locking the front door again.  Josh noticed the front of his black hoodie sank lower with weighted pockets.  Tyler shut the car door behind him, reanimating his car once more and dug into his pockets.  He handed Josh a small walkie talkie that fit into the palm of his hand.

“Dude, these are so sick,” Josh said, taking one and pressing the button, “These will work right?”  He heard his voice ring from Tyler’s palm.

“Fresh batteries and a mile range,” Tyler said into his, hearing his own voice echo in the car, “We can talk with these, like sit outside your backyard or something.”

Josh leaned his head back, and he closed his eyes.  He clutched the walkie talkie close to his chest, as Tyler watched him take deep breaths, “You getting a bit emotional there, buddy?”

“A little.”

“Do you need me to kiss you to feel better?”

Josh chuckled, “I think I’m okay without it.  Let’s get to school now.”

Jenna clasped his hands over her mouth when she saw Tyler and Josh walk with each other.  She managed out a soft, “Your hair!”  before Tyler took her hand and kissed her forehead.  Her friends gathered around Josh to compliment him too.  Finding himself slowly backing in closer to Tyler for help.  Thanking them for their compliments, and he left with Tyler and Jenna.

They walked down one of the lesser busy halls.  Tyler handed Josh a sucker he grabbed from his house too.  Explaining to Jenna in detail about their weekend together, recapping Josh as well.  Josh half-listened to the conversation, more so listening to Jenna’s reactions and questions.

“And like, I thought he was straight but he so was into it when he asked to kiss me.”

Jenna giggled, “I’m a little jealous.”

Josh realized Tyler was talking to Jenna about that now.  In the middle of school for any wandering ears to pick up on.  He tried to hush Tyler, feeling his face get hot but he only managed a sloppy noise from the sucker in his mouth.  Tyler and Jenna burst out laughing seeing Josh struggle, finally taking the candy from his mouth, “Tyler!”

Tyler reached towards his right, grabbing Josh’s hand and pulling it closer towards him.  In a swift motion he took Josh’s sucker in his mouth before Josh could pull away, “Hm?”

He decided to let Tyler keep it, Josh shook his head, “You’re disgusting.”

“I’d call it shameless.  If you really want to see disgusting then I’ll show that to you,”

Tyler jokingly stuck his tongue out and leaned over towards Josh, who jerked back and hit a locker to his right side, “Why am I friends with you!?”

Tyler bounced back and forth with a smug expression, he cracked the sucker in his mouth and handed the half with the stick on it to Jenna.  Josh watched with slight horror that Jenna just didn’t care either, “You’re disgusting too!”  Josh said to Jenna, sneering at him.

“I mean I don’t see why you’re the one worked up about this, you’re just watching your friends swapping spit.  Not yourself?  Tyler and I are..” she paused what she was going to say, “We’ve been together for over a year already so we’re comfortable with each other.”

“Do you have something else to add?”  Tyler asked.

“No! No, I was thinking of how to word it better.  Anyways, I was thinking us three should go catch seeing a movie for the weekend?”  She sounded really hopeful, looking towards Tyler and Josh.

“I, uh.. Got grounded for a while,” Josh pointed towards his hair.

“That’s dumb, I think it looks really cute.”

“I do too!  But my mom is a little uptight about this kinda stuff.”

“Here Josh,” Tyler started, “I’ll talk to your mom about it, maybe hearing my rational will ease up on your punishment.”

“No!”  Josh yelled out, “I don’t want you to get in more trouble than we need.”

Tyler didn’t say anything, hoping his silence would give Josh the impression that he wouldn’t follow through.  They stood in front of Jenna’s first hour class, Tyler giving her a goodbye kiss.  She walked towards Josh and outstretched her arms for a hug, he was confused but enveloped his arms around her soft body.  She smelled really sweet, hopefully from the perfume and not just the sucker.  She walked into class while waving at them both goodbye.

“She’s so sweet,” Tyler sighed.

“Yeah,” Josh agreed, not even thinking about what he said.  Tyler walked a pace in front of him and gave him the least intimidating questionable look, he walked backwards  while looking at Josh.  “I mean-  I’m not trying to make a move on her!”

“She’s so good to us,” Tyler turned back around, and walked with a pep in his step.

Tyler was in his driveway shooting hoops by himself, he got home about an hour ago and wanted to let off some steam.  And to wait outside for Josh to talk to him over their small radios.

He was in the midst of making his next shot, hearing the walkie talkie beep frantically in his pocket.  His shot fell short as he scrambled for the device.  “Tyler, can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear, honey.  Over.”

“We’re not going to do this.”

“But you gotta say over after you speak, it’s the rules!  Over.”

There was a short pause, “That’s not what I was talking about.. Over.”

“So what’s up now?  Over.”

“Came home, was again reminded how grounded I was.  Went to do my homework, and here I am outside enjoying the outdoors.  Over.”

“Ask if you can go on a walk, we should go walk to the woods.  Say you’re gonna go out for a jog, it won’t take more than like two hours tops.  Over.”

“I guess I can ask..”

Tyler waited for a moment, “You didn’t say over. Over.”  But didn’t get an immediate response back.

“She said I can go out, but no driving anywhere.”

“Great, meet you at the corner of your street.   _Over_.”

Tyler kicked the ball up to his hands and tossed it over the fence.  He checked if his shoe laces weren’t undone, and started up a quick jogging pace towards their meeting spot.

Josh reached the street corner and saw Tyler jogging up toward him a block away.  They waved at each other and Tyler caught up.  Josh offered him a drink from his water bottle, but Tyler declined.  “Dude you do _not_ have a fanny pack on right now.”

“Is there a problem with it?”  Josh asked.  He didn’t have to worry much about dropping his belongings, and he could clip his water bottle to the pack.  “So, where to?”

Tyler pointed straight ahead, “Down that way, into the woods.”

Josh turned, looking unsure about the idea now.  “Okay?  But you’re leading the way.”

Tyler Took out his walkie talkie, “Just in case we get lost.”

Josh patted his fanny pack, “Safe and sound here.”

The walk to the woods wasn't far.  Roughly 10 minutes with Josh trying to keep up with Tyler.  They walked on the gravel path, stopping to spray each other with bug spray.

They frayed off the path to an uneven dirt path, walking along the edge of a creek.  Jumping and ducking over fallen trees.  Josh was absentmindedly following Tyler's steps, watching Tyler carry himself with such fluidity.  He ran up a steep path with little trouble, Josh almost stumbled over trying to keep up, "Tyler, wait up!" Josh called.  He clasped his hands on his knees to regain his breath, "I'm not a good mountain climber."

Tyler went back to Josh, putting either of his hands on Josh's arms. Josh looked up quizzically.  Tyler moved his hands down and linked his pinkie with Josh's, tugging him to move along.  Not quite hand in hand, but Tyler did walk slower for Josh.

They finally stopped walking, resting on piles of flat boulders.  Tyler overlooked the trees in front of them, “I like to hang out here a lot, mostly by myself.  It’s a good place to be alone with yourself and just think.  You know?”

“I could get used to this,” Josh replied.

Tyler leaned on Josh, allowing him to rest there.  Tyler dangled his legs over the rocks, and watched his own feet sway back and forth.  He started humming to himself again, one of his songs.  When he stopped, he took a deep breath.  “Josh?”

“Yeah?”

Tyler didn’t say anything, Josh turned his head to look at the brunet next to him.  “What would it be like if we started a band together?  How far would you think we go?”

Josh looked up to the treetops, trying to picture what that’d be like, “We’d get to the top.”

“It would take a lot of time and hard work?”

“Yes.  But we could, if it takes a few years or over a decade.  If we worked together we’d make people turn around to pay attention.”

Tyler slid a soft hand over Josh’s, “They’d pay attention to your looks.”

Josh chuckled, “You’d be the one jumping around everywhere screaming your head off though.”

He didn’t want to admit he wanted to stay sitting like that for a long time.  Tyler made Josh feel secure, that life didn’t matter outside of their dream world.

“We should head back home now,”  Tyler said finally.  They ached to stand up, they lost track of time sitting.

“What time is it?”  Josh asked, a little panicked now being forced back to reality, realizing he was having some sort of feelings towards his best friend who was already in a relationship.  He worried Tyler was teasing him, putting him into a false heaven.

“Hey, did you hear me?”

Josh shook his head, “Sorry, what?”

“We have half an hour left, we gotta start leaving.”

Josh made it back home just in time, leaving Tyler at the corner of his street, watching Josh race down the street to get back home.  Seeing him disappear behind a car, Tyler turned and left.  Walking with his hands in his pockets, finding his phone to text Jenna.

_‘i’m gonna get josh ungrounded somehow.’_

Tyler was reading a book in his room.  He was killing time waiting for the clock to turn 4pm.  Josh mentioned that he had work today, so they couldn’t have another romantic walk in the woods again.  Tyler assured him it was fine, not telling Josh he was waiting for that time to go talk to his mom.

He leafed through another page, and his alarm buzzed.  Turning it off before it rang too loud, getting up to change into a fancier set of clothes.  Making sure his hair was even on both sides, and racing out of the front door with a loud, “I’ll be back soon!”

He didn’t pull into the driveway, across the street was fine.  He flattened his collar before getting out of the car, stepping up to the home plate of the Dun’s.  The doorbell sang when he pressed it, standing back with his hands at his sides, waiting.

No answer came at first, and he felt his legs starting to shake.  Thinking that nobody was home or his mom was purposely ignoring him.  He considering ringing the doorbell again when he saw the door open.  Josh’s mom was in front of him looking a bit confused, “Hello?”

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Dun.  I’m Tyler Joseph, Josh’s new friend.”

She squinted her eyes at him, “Ah, I remember you.”

“May we please talk a little bit?  I know I shouldn’t be here, Josh told me not to but I need to take responsibility.”

“Sure, that’s fine.  Come in and we can talk and eat.”

Tyler smiled with appreciation, “Thank you so much, it shouldn’t take too long.”

“T-Tyler!?”

“That’s me,”  he turned around on his stool, Josh was standing in the doorway into the kitchen.  Confused and looking angered that Tyler betrayed him.

“Josh,” his mother’s voice was stern and he looked at her, upset.  She looked down and sighed, “We need to talk.”

He just got home from work and he felt emotionally sore, he really just wanted to lay face down on his bed.  He took his hat off and went to stand next to Tyler, “What’s it about?” he asked.

“Your friend came over, and we were talking for some time,” she looked over at the clock behind her.  “Oh my!  It’s been a whole three hours, did you know your friend _loves_ to talk?”

Tyler grinned with pride, “Not all the time, but I do like to hear myself talk too.”

“The point is, we did talk about you and the choices both of you are making.  And while I don’t agree with most of it, I do see what wrong I’ve done too.”

Josh looked so relieved, his eyes were beginning to water, “It was stupid, yeah.  But everyone likes it and I think it looks amazing.”

“And this is the thing,” Tyler pointed his thumb at Josh, “He wants to find what makes him comfortable and what makes him.. well, _him_.  I don’t see myself as a bad influence, I’m a well-disciplined child myself.  But I was also taught that I should take consequences over my own action, and remind myself what is the right choice to make and the wrong one.  Right now, Josh is the coolest dude in school but he doesn’t feel it like.”

 _There he goes, talking his mouth off_. Josh thought, refusing to look at him now.

His mom nodded, “That doesn’t mean I’m still not angry about you.  You decided to go against what I told you.  I was worried what would happen to your future, or your choices if you did all of these things that I didn’t like-”

“You’re also associating that all of these things create bad behaviour.  Which isn’t the case at all, it’s a part of our culture now and it’s a good form of acceptance.  Like, I’m a normal-looking dude,  but I will shoot my vocals out singing and screaming what sounds like gibberish.  Some people would think, ‘that’s not good, that’s not normal, you need to stop that now.’  But it _is_ normal, and it’s what I like.  I don’t think the things Josh wants to do is going to negatively affect him.  It’s not affecting his brain since he was thinking like this before, and it’s not affecting his job since he came home on time.  Not any earlier for being fired,”  Tyler shrugged his shoulders, “I just want to see the real Josh, and to see him open up to people.”

“I really appreciate it, Tyler.  Even though I told you not to,” Josh felt his face getting hot after Tyler’s speech about him.

“Josh, what I want to say to you is I’m sorry.  And I should have listened to you from the beginning.  I’m still a bit angry over this, but for now you’re forgiven a little bit.  You’re still on probation though, no laptop until your dye fades.  But you can have your phone back, and you can hang out with Tyler after you have all of your homework done.”

Josh bit his lips, trying not to cry.  He reached over and gave his mom a hug.  She patted his back, feeling him shake.  Tyler was amused at the heart-felt scene, feeling accomplished.

“It’s getting late now, I should start on making dinner.”

“Oh can I help!  My mom says I’m a good cook!”  Tyler offered, trying not to fall off of his seat in excitement.

Josh’s mom waved Tyler goodbye, he carried a paper plate wrapped in foil in one hand.  Josh wanted to thank Tyler one last time, walking out the door with him.  The sun had set and it turned dark.  A single street lamp illuminated this side of Josh’s street.  Josh couldn’t keep in his excitement any longer, he hugged Tyler, picking him up and spinning him around once.  Tyler tried to demand to be put down, but it was difficult through their fits of laughter.

“I still don’t know why you did that for me, I told you not to.”

“Well I wanted to hang out with you still, and I had to own up too.”

Josh’s heart was racing, so many thoughts were running through his mind.  He felt his hands touch Tyler’s cheeks, and their foreheads pressed together.  They were still smiling and giggling with victory.  Josh was overwhelmed, he couldn’t thank Tyler enough for standing up for him.  “So like, are you gonna kiss me now or what?”  Tyler asked.

Josh wanted to say ‘I could,’ but he actually did.  Tyler’s lips felt softer than his hands, guilt was what pushed him away, “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”  Tyler asked.

“For doing that, it’s not fair.”

He heard Tyler huff a bit of air, trying not to laugh,  “You don’t want me to spoil it for you.”

“What do you mean?”

But before Josh could get an answer out of Tyler, he slipped away to his car.  Waving goodbye, yelling something about seeing him later for their movie date with Jenna.

Tyler drove away, and Josh pondered over why the thought of a movie date wasn’t making him feel guilty.

"Hey Josh!"  Jenna called, waving from the passenger's seat next to Tyler.  It was Saturday afternoon and it was their movie date.  The couple were both wearing sunglasses, and Jenna had a cute sunhat on too.  Josh carried a coat over his shoulder and sat in the backseat, scooting over towards the middle.

"Everyone excited?" Tyler asked, turning his head towards Jenna and then looking back at Josh.

"I am, I honestly don't remember the last time I went to the movies with company,” Josh said, while buckling himself in.

“Aww, we’re here for you, Josh.  I love hanging out with you and Tyler,”  Jenna said, she reached her hand back.  And Josh found himself putting his palm into her own for her sympathy.  She curled her fingers around his, her hands were softer than Tyler’s.  He also noticed a faint fragrance from her, it smelled sweet, and he hoped it was from Jenna.  He wasn’t sure how he’d feel if Tyler decided to take her perfume.

On the road, Jenna was asking Josh a lot of questions.  More in general and about school, his interests, nothing weird like Tyler would ask.

“I should have come up sooner to talk to you during lunch, you take your lunch and sit over by the window with your headphones in.”

Josh didn’t even realize Jenna was in his lunch hour, “I don’t mind where I sit, if anyone sits by me they’re mostly working on homework.”

“If you wanted to sit with my table, you’re more than welcome to.”

It’d be nice to have someone to talk to that he knows, and Jenna is really sweet and kindhearted.  He felt content knowing she cares about him too from their few times meeting one another.  “I’ll try it out, if it’s too much then I might go back.. or plug in my headphones if I decide to sit with you.”

“Great!  I’m really hoping you will feel up to it,”  Jenna grinned, and let out an excited giggle.  Josh put his hands under his legs and rocked slightly back and forth, his chest felt light and had a hint of excitement.

They pulled up into the parking lot of the theater, Tyler making sure to grab Jenna’s coat and his hoodie.  This place was a decent quality, but the air inside would get colder than most other theaters around.  Josh watched Tyler and Jenna walking together and holding hands.  They stopped at a crosswalk, Josh standing by them now instead of behind.  They waited for a car to pass, and he felt something touch his arm.  Looking to his right Jenna had taken his hand too.  It was just their palms together, not fingers intertwined like between Tyler and Jenna.

“Don’t want to lose you, Josh,” Tyler leaned over and called at him.

“Oh don’t worry, I won’t go anywhere without you guys.. I’ll get lost and you’d leave me behind.”

“You’ve probably been watching too many horror movies,”  Jenna said, she swung both her arms back and forth.  Tyler stepped ahead to open the first set of doors for Jenna and Josh.  Closing behind them, and Josh took the second set of doors for Jenna and Tyler.  

Josh wiped his hands nervously in his pants, looking at the screen above for showtimes.  "So what are we watching?" He asked.

"A horror movie," Jenna said with enthusiasm.

 _Great_ , Josh thought.

Josh paid for himself, and Tyler paid for Jenna and his own.  Josh decided to buy the most expensive popcorn bowl to share in between since he felt like it would be fair.  They got their popcorn, buttered and salted of course.  And headed to their theater room.  Sitting all the way at the back and center, with Jenna sitting in between Josh and Tyler.  They talked through the previews and finished a third of the popcorn in that time.  Phones and voices silenced when the light in the room dimmed and the movie started.

“Tyler, it’s not funny!” Josh yelled, when they were outside in the evening sun.  Tyler was standing by the edge of the sidewalk, clutching his stomach laughing seeing Josh scream and cover his eyes at more than half the movie.

“I’m pretty sure you knocked your own glasses off your face at one part,” he managed between breaths.

“Did not!  You couldn’t prove it even if so.”

Jenna was standing next to Josh, shivering still from the cold theater.  She grabbed onto one of Josh’s arms and hugged it close.  “How’re you so warm after all of that?  I’d expect you’d be frozen stiff from the color draining from your face.”

“Listen, snakes are _not_ a thing to be chill about,”  Josh excused.  That made Tyler laugh even more.

“‘Not a thing to be chill about,’” he wheezed.  He wiped his eye with his sleeve, “Oh my goodness, Josh I love you.”

“Are you sure Tyler?  Are you really that positive?  If you loved me then we’d go see a better movie.”

“Shh it’s okay Josh,”  Jenna soothed, “I still love you.”

His skin prickled when she said that, he couldn’t tell from her tone of voice if she was joking like Tyler was.  He could assume so, but he wasn’t too sure.  He unbuttoned his jacket and took it off, “I’m getting hot now standing in this.”

“We can go.. chill in my car with the air conditioning?”  Tyler suggested, trying to hide his comical grin.

Just then, Josh felt his phone vibrating.  He fished it out and saw his mom was calling.  Taking the call and walking away from Tyler, he didn’t want to risk it.

Josh hung up when he finished talking, slumping his shoulders while walking to the two, “Mom says I gotta come home now, some relatives are coming over and they wanted to see me.  I think she just isn’t comfortable with me being out too long anymore.  But, whatever.”

“Aw, so soon?”  Jenna asked, she did look a bit upset that they’d have to leave.  They had talked about going out to eat at a diner.  She walked up to Josh and gave him a hug.  He felt his body move on its own, taking her in his arms and resting his head on her shoulder.  He felt his heart ache, he didn’t want to leave his friends.

He heard Tyler walk up to them both and for a split second he thought to rip away from Jenna, or if he didn’t then Tyler sure would have.  But instead, he felt Tyler’s hands barely able to grasp onto his tank top.  Jenna laughed and made a slight sound of distress feeling Tyler squish her into a hug with the three of them.  “You can’t leave if I won’t let you.”

“You wouldn’t anyways since you drive, you’re in full control of that too you know!”  Josh argued.  Tyler looked over at Josh, knocking their foreheads together.

There was nothing normal about three people hugging in front of a movie theater.

“Should we tell him?”  Jenna asked to Tyler.

“Tell me what?”

Tyler pulled away and Jenna did too.  She exaggerated by taking a deep breath after being freed.  She stood next to Tyler, who stood differently to look shy.  He looked at Josh with puppy-dog eyes, “Would you like to go to Homecoming with Jenna and I?”

Josh looked at them both, knitting his eyebrows with confusion.  “You mean like asking if I was going since you both are going?”

“No.  We mean like as a date, all three of us,”  Jenna corrected.

“We’ve been talking about it a lot, and we know it’s like a month from now but.  Man, how cool would that be to go together.  Haven’t seen anyone do that before and I want to make a change to that,”  Tyler wasn’t joking.  It was the same look he gave Josh when they were sitting on the roof, he wanted Josh to go with them.

Josh hadn’t gone to Homecoming in any year prior.  He already knew that prom wasn’t an option in Junior year and now _maybe_ senior year.

_Was that why Tyler was really chill when Jenna would be close with me?  She knows Tyler sees me as a ‘close’ friend, despite him assuring her he’d never leave Jenna for me?  Was this just all a plan to lead up to this very moment, was I being played?_

__

Images of them walking into the school arm in arm, dancing with each other, laughing the night away, all of those flickered through Josh’s mind.

“Let me tell my mom I’m going first, okay?”

Jenna was so relieved, she sighed and held Tyler’s arm, leaning on him.  Tyler on the other hand was washed up with hearing Josh, that his knees buckled.  He started to fall forward, taking Jenna down with him.  “Tyler!  You’re supposed to be the one to catch me when I fall!”

“Just fall on me instead!”

Josh lunged forward, unable to believe how ridiculous they were.  He caught Jenna, and Tyler fell on the sidewalk with a thud.  He splayed his arms above his head and gave up, laying on the hot cement.  He pulled out his keys and jingled it toward Josh, “Take my car, make sure Jenna gets home safe for me.  I don’t know if I can make it much longer.”

Josh couldn’t believe everything that had happened.  He declined Tyler’s offer to drive of course, he just watched his dramatic theater friend get up after his arm got tired of holding the keys up.  He jumped to his feet, looking more refreshed.  They drove back to Josh’s house without a pause in their conversations.  Josh put so much slack into his seatbelt to lean his elbows on both headrests.  He wanted to be closer to Tyler and Jenna.  He saw Tyler and Jenna holding hands, and thought about what it’d be like if he could too.

Tyler pulled into Josh’s driveway, but he was reluctant to go home.  He was still leaning on the headrests, and had no incentive to unbuckle.

“So we’ll talk about plans, I’ll add you to a group chat,”  Tyler said to Josh.

“No computer though,” Josh reminded him.

Tyler sucked in air through his teeth, remembering that part, “Can your phone handle group messaging too?”

“Never tried before.”

“We can try and if it doesn’t work, then we always have time at school to work it out.  Or over the phone too with the three of us.  But until then, see you later I guess?”

Jenna ran her fingers through Josh’s pink hair, and it felt soothing.  Josh smiled and closed his eyes, leaning into her touch.  He felt Tyler leaning over to kiss his cheek too, and wasn’t surprised that he did.

“Goodnight, you little watermelon!”  Jenna called out when Josh finally left the car.  Josh stepped into the threshold and heard Tyler driving off.

It was the night before the dance, Josh had his suit hung up on his door, still wrapped in its plastic.  His hands were trembling trying to wipe away the tears falling onto his phone screen.  He was hesitating to send Tyler a text, to call off the date.  It wasn’t fair to him, or Tyler, or even Jenna.  He couldn’t look at them both as just friends anymore, and that wasn’t fair.  Tyler and Jenna are the ones together, they’re happy together.  Josh can’t fit into that equation at all, he was being selfish.  He shook his head, erased his message and typed in, _‘Call me please’_

Josh went over to his window, opening it and jumping to the wet grass below.  He snapped it back shut, and felt the his phone buzzing in his palm.  He fumbled to answer, almost swiping to hang up at first.

“Josh.”

Tyler didn’t say it like a question, he sounded tentative across the line.

“I need to talk to you about something, please..”  His words were shaking, he couldn’t stop himself from hiccuping either.

“I’m listening, where are you?”

“Outside.”

“Keep talking to me, tell me what’s up.”

Josh inhaled a deep breath, "I'm backing out for tomorrow.  I-I can't do it.  It hurts so much, I don't want this to ruin our friendship.  You and Jenna go, you both are actually together.  And like, I feel like I'm being used.  I-I don't want to keep this up anymore.. You can't love two people at once, and I can't stand it anymore if you're just toying with my feelings.  Just, I need to hear this from you, why are you keeping this up?  Why are you and Jenna joking with me all the time?". He stopped, sounding like he had more to say, he bit down on his knuckle to keep from crying out.  "Are you still listening to me?"

Josh checked his phone, Tyler was still on the line.  He just needed an affirmative, that’s all.  He shut his eyes tight, tears rolling down his cheeks.  He barely heard the sound of a car door slam shut and a light flickered towards him.  Josh looked up, seeing Tyler racing towards him with his phone in hand and a small flashlight in the other.  Tyler looked more pale than normal, he dropped to his knees next to Josh, finally hanging up his phone.

“T-Tyler?”  Josh’s voice broke, barely audible.

Tyler looked up and down at Josh, seeing Josh broken into a disheveled mess made his heart ache.  He bit his lip and felt tears swelling up in his eyes.  He wanted to hug Josh and make his pain go away, but he was shaking too much and Josh was fragile.  “I’m here for you, what do you need to know?”  Tyler said, as calmly as he could.

“Are you treating me like a joke?  You keep on.. being open about your sexuality to me, but I can’t even tell if you’re being serious.  Because it’s really messing me up and now I keep on feeling things too.”

Tyler shook his head, “You’re no joke to me, Josh.  Do you remember the genuine excitement when you kissed me that one time, I understand if you wanted to ‘experiment’ I guess,” the words ran off Tyler’s mouth like soap, he hated comparing it to that, “I drove here as soon as you said you needed to talk, I knew there was something up.  I don’t want to see you hurt, Josh.  I know a while ago I said you were second to Jenna, but now I want you to be tied with her.  She knows this too, and we’ve talked to each other with countless numbers of hours by now about it.”

Josh wondered why through all of this, he wasn’t at all envious of Jenna.  She was perfect for Tyler, she was sweet and caring and she had such a bombass sense of humor.  “But, Jenna?  How does she really feel about this too?  I can’t see how this could work I don’t want to take her away from you-”

Tyler turned his head to the side, his eyes were a bit wide.  Josh realized what he had said, _oh fuck, I meant the other way around._

He thought of the utter fear he had when Tyler approached him in gym, thinking he was going to get the daylight punched straight out of him, “Do you like Jenna too?”

“No!  I mean, I was trying to say it the other way around.”

Tyler crooked his lips to a smile, “Are you sure?”

“T-Tyler?”

Josh went from fear, to confusion.  Tyler molded his face into sheer amusement, and joy.  He picked up his phone and started tapping on his screen, “Can I call her right now to tell her what you said?”

“No!  Tyler don’t!”  Josh felt his face turning red with embarrassment, he wanted to die.  Any assurance of Tyler being anything but serious towards him was gone.  He dreaded when Tyler put the phone to his ear, answering with his dumb crooked smile.  Looking straight at him when he said to the phone, “Josh likes you too.”

Josh stared at him with betrayal, there was a silence between them.  Until Josh heard a faint but apparent, “No way!”

Tyler looked at Josh, his eyes were lined with tears.  He held up a finger to the phone and mouthed if he can talk to Jenna for a little bit.  Josh nodded and allowed Tyler to sit next to him with the phone pressed in between them, he wondered if Tyler knew how to use speaker phone.

“Yeah he called me and sounded very upset over something, so I got to his place as soon as possible.  He wasn’t feeling really good, he wanted to call off our date tomorrow.”

“Aw no, I was really looking forward to this too.  I was gonna tell him afterward with you about it.  I felt like that’d be the best time to tell Josh, and why we had so much fun.  Sure I’d feel bad if he didn’t like us.. or just you.”

“Well he _accidently_ told me.  He still claims he meant to say it the other way around that, ‘he didn’t want to take me away from you,’ but absolutely said ‘you away from me’.  But I find it hard to lie in this type of situation.”

Josh covered his face, he did mean the other way around.  But his heart was still racing, thinking about it.

“Is it okay if I talk to Josh?”

Tyler turned his head to Josh,  he nodded his head, and Tyler quickly said, “Yep, here you go!”  and handed it to Josh.

“H-hello?”

“Hi Josh!”

He took a deep breath, “So.. I uh..  Jenna.  What do you think about me?”

“You’re wonderful, Josh.  You probably don’t believe me when I say this but, Tyler and I both really like you too.  For a while, we both believe in this sort of thing.  And I think that’s what drew us so close together in the first place that we both shared the same views about loving people, not just someone else.  And when you came into our lives, we both knew.  You are so important to Tyler and I, and we wanted to tell you as soon as possible.  But we weren’t so sure if you were cool with this too.  Tyler was definitely more assertive, and it made me hopeful thinking about if you thought the same way.”

Josh let out a giggle, “No wonder why I never got jealous of you.  I’m like, still a little shaky if Tyler is actually lying right now.  And is just waiting on sacking me in the face.”

“I won’t!”  Tyler said loud enough so Jenna could hear.

Josh and Tyler broke out into a fit of giggles, hearing Jenna joining in from her end of the line.

“So Josh..”

“Yeah?”

“Are you still going with us to homecoming?”

“Absolutely.”

“That’s good to hear.  Thank you so much Josh, I have to go now and take a shower, love you both.”

His voice got caught up in his throat for a moment, she hung up in a hurry though.  But that was okay with Josh.  He rested his hand on the grass, Tyler’s phone still in his grip.  He felt Tyler’s hand on his, thinking he’d retrieve his phone.  Instead he left it there, the thin device between their hands.  Tyler leaned on Josh’s shoulder, and they sat for a while like that.

“So are you okay with what you heard?”  Tyler asked.

“Yeah, dude.”

“Are you gonna be alright now?  If not I can stay longer, I’m just checking.”

“Yeah.. yeah, I’m good.  Thank you both so much, and for not punching me in the face.”

Tyler shifted to kiss Josh’s cheek, “The hardest punch you’ll get from me, hope it didn’t hurt too much.”

Josh smirked, he was fine knowing Tyler wasn’t messing with his head.

It was the night of homecoming, Josh and Tyler were fixing their hair in the smaller bathroom within Jenna’s house.  Josh felt like he was gonna puke.  Was he scared, was he excited?  It all felt the same.

Tyler put a hand on his shoulder rubbing soothing circles for Josh to feel better, “Are you okay, buddy?”

“Yeah.. no.  I’m like, super nervous.”

Tyler took Josh’s hand and held it in front of them both, looking at how just suspended in air how much his hand shook.  Josh retracted his hand back after the point was made, heaving a sigh.  Tyler put his hand on Josh’s shoulder again, not forcibly turning, but Josh pivoted to face Tyler.  His look was hard and unnerving, Josh breathed in and out to steady his heart beats.  He didn’t realize he was shorter than Tyler, but he felt his chin tilt up now that they were wearing similar shoes.

Tyler’s lips curled into a small smile, “Better now?”

“A little.”

Josh felt Tyler’s hand on his chin, pulling him closer for a kiss.  Josh couldn’t keep a straight face, smiling when they touched.  His giggles tore Tyler away,  “Brush your teeth.”

“I did already!”

Tyler patted his front and back pockets, finding a half empty pack of gum.  He handed it to Josh who delightfully popped a piece into his mouth, “You can keep the rest, dog breath.”

Josh smirked, and went in for a peck on the corner of Tyler’s lips, “Better now, baby boy?”

“Much more romantic.”

Tyler turned to open the door to leave now, turning off the bathroom light after Josh walked past him.

“Are you two done?”  Jenna called out from somewhere across the house.

“Yeah, we’re all set to go now!”  Tyler called back.

“Okay, I’ll be ready soon.  I was just checking!”

Tyler walked over to the couch, offering a seat to Josh.  Accepting, and sitting on the couch, checking his phone immediately after sitting down.  Tyler still lolled around upright, not quite wanting to sit down but instead to take in his surroundings.  Josh was honestly expecting to hear from Tyler to get off his phone, and that he wouldn’t be able to use it tonight if they sat down.  But none such came, and remembered they’re from the same generation, not their parents’.

Not long after there was a clicking echoing down the halls.  Josh and Tyler both looked up to see Jenna walk down the hall.  She saw them both and smiled, twirling from side to side to show off her dress.  Josh’s jaw dropped, she was stunning and beaming with brilliance.  Tyler cupped a hand over his mouth, his eyes creased and visibly fighting back tears.  

“You’re beautiful,”  they both said at the same time.

Jenna giggled, swaying her body a little bit, “I know.”

Tyler offered his hand for Jenna, she walked over and took his hand.  He pressed her hand up to his lips, and then entwined their fingers together.  She looked over to Josh and nodded her head once.  He pushed off the couch to saunter over, slipping his arm into hers.  She smiled and stood on her toes, planting a peck on Josh's lips.  His heart buzzed the same way it did with Tyler.  That was his first kiss with Jenna since his confession, just under a day ago.

There was a set of footsteps coming from the kitchen, the trio all turned to see who was there.  Jenna’s mother was walking up to them excitedly, holding a camera close to her.  “Look at my precious children, all dressed up and making memories tonight!”  she said, almost sounding like a bird chirping, “Here now, come stand by the front door and take some pictures before you head off.  I want to remember this moment too.”

“Sure!”  Tyler agreed.  Jenna’s mom thought it was a cute idea that they’d go as a trio this year.  She still has pictures from the last few times Jenna was out with Tyler.  She shuffled them to the front room, having them all pose individually, then with Tyler and Jenna.  Josh stood on the other end of the room while those pictures were being taken, seeing a slight change in expression in Tyler between shots.  Jenna’s mom almost dismissed them, But Tyler coaxed Josh towards him.  “Come on, bud.  You’re a part of this too.  Don’t be shy.”

Josh felt his heart race, he was thankful Tyler had enough guts to speak out.  Josh was beaming with excitement, posing naturally for the first shots.  And Jenna having great ideas for more poses.  Dozens of pictures were taken before they decided it was time to go.  Jenna’s mom gave them all a quick hug, reminding them to stay out of trouble and to drive safely.

Tyler jingled his keys as they walked out of the door one after the other.  The door shut behind them, and they all went to pile into Tyler’s car.  Tyler fumbled his keys in the ignition, it was dark and he was shaking with excitement.  Josh was sitting next to him in the passenger’s seat, and Jenna was sitting in the back.

“You ready guys?”  Tyler asked, while looking behind him to reverse.

“Heck yeah, tonight is gonna be so sick,” Josh said.

Jenna looked towards Tyler and smiled, he tried not to break focus but it was tempting.  “Don’t make me teary eyed just yet, I want to get at least one dance in before my makeup has a chance to run.”

“If that happens, I’ll cry harder so people would look at me instead.”

Josh broke into a fit of laughter from the front.

“Are you making fun of me, Josh?  I’m not ready to cry yet, dude,” Tyler finally shifted the car to drive and they began heading towards the school.

“I’m not making fun of you, I’m just really happy I’m with you two.”

“Aw, thanks Josh.  I’d kiss you, but that’d distract Tyler,”  Jenna said.

Tyler clicked his teeth, “What gives you guys the idea that _I’d_ be jealous?”Jenna and Josh sat in silence, “I thought so.”

Tyler pulled up to a parking space, already seeing other students getting out of their cars, or dropped off by parents.  He smirked, remembering that awkward time inviting Jenna for their first dance but he had to have his dad drive them both to the school.  Reminding them about all the little things they really didn’t want to hear about.

But tonight, they were free from that.  Tyler and Josh both stepped out of the car at the same time.  Tyler stepped back to open the door for Jenna to step out, making sure she was good on her heels.  He pulled her close for a kiss on her cheek, closing the door behind her.  They walked to the front of the car and Josh offered to take her arm like before.  She did and they walked to the front of the school together.

The looks the students gave were phenomenal.  Some had their jaw drop, others stared at them despite having their date next to them.  Few cheered seeing the three.  Jenna looked powerful, and had two escorts on either side of her.  They were her guard dogs for the night, and everyone could see that too.

They showed their tickets and each got a bracelet to enter, stepping into the gymnasium to be met with multicolored lights, the bass rumbling through the floor and resonating in their chests.

Josh leaned close to Jenna, “Hey isn’t Mark gonna be here too?”

Through the loud music and the chattering, it was a bit hard to hear Josh, but she picked up on it, “Yeah!  But he’s here to run the place, so you might not catch him very often out and about.”

Josh nodded, “Alright, I was a little curious.”

Jenna giggled, saying to herself, “Thinking about adding more fun to the party?”

Josh heard, but he didn’t comment on that.  He was more than happy with what he had now.  And Tyler even said it to himself that Mark wasn’t really into that kinda stuff.  They picked a table to sit at, to claim for the rest of the night.  Josh and Jenna sat together while Tyler was up getting drinks and snacks for them both.   They watched many students dance freely for a while.  At one point Jenna and Tyler got up to dance together.  They were lost in the crowd and Josh waited patiently at their table.  He felt a tap on his shoulder and saw Mark show up and take a seat next to Josh, “Hey Mark, you’re actually here.”

“I got a little break which is nice, no dancing for me tonight but that’s okay,” he had his own cup of punch in his hand, and periodically took sips out of it.  He set his cup on the table and turned to Josh, “So I heard some news about you.”

“What’d you hear this time?”

“That it worked out between you all.  I don’t understand how it works, but it’s fine if you’re happy with it.”

Josh looked down at the table, trying to hide his reddening face, “I think happy is an understatement.”

Mark clapped a hand on Josh’s back, “Proud of you man.”

Tyler and Jenna returned a little bit later, Tyler wanted to get a drink for himself.

“Josh, you wanna try dancing with me?”  Jenna asked.  She saw Mark and waved to him.

"Sure!" He didn't realize how excited he was until he got up.  He was afraid his hands would get clammy even before going on stage with Jenna.  Jenna held her hand out for Josh, slipping his hand into hers and being whisked away into the crowd.

Nobody really minded how you danced, as long as you kept yourself from bumping into someone else.  They both just danced facing each other, a performance for them both to some remixed overplayed pop song.  Lost in the music, it eventually stopped and everyone cheered for their efforts.  Josh leaned over to Jenna to tell her, “I’m going to get a bottle of water, I’ll be back soon.”

She nodded with an okay, and they split apart.  A set of doors was open to the foyer, some students were hanging out there.  There was a concession stand selling candy and drinks, thankfully the line wasn’t too long.  Josh purchased a cold water bottle, and thanked the vendor before heading back into the gym.  He uncapped his water and drank some on his way back.

Josh came back to sit down at their table again, Jenna was talking with Mark.  But Tyler still hadn’t shown up.  He set his bottle down and took a seat.  He didn’t want to admit he was tempted to find Tyler.

Mark had to leave after a couple songs in.  Jenna and Josh sat with their hands together to comfort one another.  Somewhere through the speakers, there was an announcer calling for raffle winners.  He wondered if Tyler was gone to grab a few.

Josh almost pulled out his phone to text Tyler where he went.  “Josh!”  he heard someone call his name before feeling someone put their hands on both of his shoulders.  Josh jumped at the sudden touch and turned around to see it was Tyler, his tension quickly went away.

“There you are, where did you even go?”  Jenna asked, surprised to see Tyler reappear.

“I was gonna get something to drink and I got stopped by a couple of kids interviewing me for the school paper.  And after that I had some basketball kids come up to me and talk about tryouts for this year,” he talked fast.

“Well it’s good to see you back, you missed Mark,” Josh said, pointing with his thumb in the general direction where Mark had gone off to.  Tyler did look up a bit disappointed, and let out a sigh, scanning the crowds.

He shrugged his shoulders, “Josh, you wanna dance with me now?”

“You want to make this our song?” he joked, but Tyler looked really into that idea.

“Let’s do it.”

Jenna waved them both off, saying she was okay with taking a break.  Tyler patted Josh’s shoulders excitedly until he stood up.  Taking him to the dancefloor.

What Tyler didn’t mention to Josh was that the next song that was going to play was a slow dance.  He didn’t mention at all that he was gone for so long was to wait by the DJ until he knew he had enough time to get Josh on the stage with him.  The mood shifted, many couples made way to the floor to dance with their partners.  Josh would have been completely okay with dancing, if it was with Jenna and he didn’t have bright pink hair.  But he didn’t want to be that guy to leave the stage.

Tyler grabbed one of Josh’s wrists, “Dance with me, please.”

Josh did feel a little nervous, since this time there were people arm in arm swaying steadily to the music.  The lights were dimmed enough, and everyone looked absorbed with their partners.  He felt his arms move into place, and he felt Tyler’s arms around him.  Tyler’s eyes were half lidded, just seeing him that calm helped Josh feel at ease.  The song felt like it went on for ages, and Josh was fine with that.  It felt like they were moving to their breathing instead of the tempo of the song.  Josh saw Tyler grinning before their foreheads touched, before he felt his eyes close and living in a romantic fantasy.  They were so close, Josh could hear Tyler breathe out, “I love you.”

Tyler moved his hands to Josh’s cheeks, kissing him then and there in the gym around a bunch of other kids.  Josh felt like he was going to be swept off his feet with initial shock. But eventually tuned into it, wrapping his hands around Tyler’s sides and bringing him closer.

There was an unpleasant noise somewhere close by in the crowd, Tyler pulled away from Josh hearing it too.  The song ended and neither could figure out what response that voice was for.  The commotion didn’t end after that and Josh was beginning to worry.  Tyler was looking around, examining the people around him.

“Hey Tyler, I’m gonna go sit down now,”  Josh said, Tyler nodded in response.

“I’ll catch up with you.”

Josh stepped off the stage, thinking he could go sit down with Jenna and hang out.  He looked down to the ground where he’d step, and felt a tug on his collar.  He felt his chest seize up in shock, turning around to see someone larger than him.  Recognizing him as one of Tyler’s teammates, and he looked unwelcoming, “Can I help you?” Josh asked, regretting even making confrontation.

He felt his shoulders being pushed with such force, he couldn’t hold himself up.  Josh stepped back and fell to the ground.  A sickening feeling pooling in his stomach when the students around them began flocking to the confrontation.  The enraged student was spewing lines of hatred over and over again, he saw Josh and Tyler, and was disgusted.  Bringing attention to them, and only knowing about Tyler and Jenna being together.  Josh didn’t realize in that moment that there were others around him who joined in the ridicule.  He’d never thought that there were so many people that would shame him for that.  He bit back tears, he saw his confronter step closer for a hit.  Josh threw his arms up to brace himself, feeling something land in his lap.  He looked down and saw a set of keys, Tyler’s keys.

The kids who had crowded all bellowed out a noise, Josh looked up to see Tyler have no mercy against his teammate.  His head thrown to one side, Tyler’s hand still balled into a tight fist.  Students enlarged the circle, stepping back in fear from Tyler.  He looked as vicious as Josh remembered seeing him as before they became friends.  Tyler looked over to Josh for a second, “Take care of Jenna!”  But within that second, the player had finally retaliated, getting a direct hit to Tyler’s face.  Students yelled and some shrieked.  Josh wanted to join in and annihilate that guy, but his body moved away.  He pushed through the crowd and found Jenna, she was pale worried.

“We need to go, now!”

She started to shake her head, but security guards had finally raced to the group of kids.  Josh rushed Jenna out within the confusion, they were soon out of the school doors.

They were sitting in front of the school, the air was quiet on the outside.  Jenna was shaking, sitting on a bench.  Josh was trying his best to comfort her, “Tyler’s a good guy, he can stand up for himself.”

“I’m not worried about that.”

Josh didn’t ask what Jenna was worried about.  But he needed to figure out a good way to word that they should drive home.  He pulled out the keys he had stuffed into his pocket, turning them over in his hands.  He ground his teeth together, cursing at himself that he let himself be too comfortable over that.  He didn’t realize that some people didn’t understand, and they didn’t know how to react.  Tyler’s basketball teammate might honestly have been looking out for him, and got the wrong message.  He imagined how it would have played out with Jenna, since everyone knows Tyler and Jenna are a couple.  But nobody really knew about their trio, but they could have saw Tyler as a queer and felt like it could hurt their sportsmanship since that was a big issue in sports.  But Josh couldn’t know for sure either, maybe they thought Josh was desperate.

He was tying his anxiety into knots, and felt so many things rush through his mind.  He didn’t want to cry, but he knew he couldn’t stop it.

The school doors behind him opened, followed by a strange yell.  Jenna and Josh both turned to see an enthusiastic guy freaking out and running up to them both.  Josh didn’t recognize him from the crowd, he approached with a huge grin on his face, “Dude!  That was so hot.”

“I-I’m sorry, what?”  Josh asked.

“Brendon.”

_His name, his name._

“Well, I’m talking about the part before the fight.  Because that fight wasn’t that cool.  But I’m glad I caught you because holy shit dude, you have guts.”

“Um.. thanks?  I’m not sure If I want to talk about it right now.”

“Oh right, sorry about that,” Brendon apologized, but he still looked excitable.  “You’re Josh right?  The one who had contradictory rumors like the first week of school that nobody knew what the fuck was going on?”

“If you put it like that, then sure?  Are you alright?”

Brendon pointed at himself, “Me?  Fuck, dude.  I don’t remember if I took a drink before or after I spiked the punch bowl,” he held up a finger like he was telling Josh to wait.  He pulled out a rolled up piece of paper and a lighter, “It doesn’t hurt to make sure though.”

Josh stared at Brendon in awe, they immediately contrasted one another.  He just met this kid and already he took out a blunt right in front of Josh and lit it up.  “Uh listen, Brendon.  I appreciate your words, but I think I’m going to head out.  Tonight hasn’t been the best and I think it’s just time to get it over with.”

“No, I’m not done yet.  I get that part, and how you’re fucked over now.  I’m gonna talk to you about that,”  Brendon took a long drag, and exhaled smoke away from Josh, “Listen, you fucking killed it back there.  And you look so punk rock, everyone is gonna give you shit and we know it.  But I think you’re a cool guy, your bro Tyler is also pretty chill.  But he’s more than likely to have suspension from disorderly conduct on school grounds.  I got some people who can help you out, you deserve it.”

Josh looked over to Jenna, she looked a bit skeptical, “What do you mean?”  she asked.

“I mean you don’t have to worry about school on Monday, I got the hook ups!”

“Okay, I appreciate the help.  But we’re going to get going now, there is really not much else to do here,”  Josh said, Brendon nodded and finally waved him off.

Josh found Tyler’s car and opened the door for Jenna, she thanked him and sat inside.  Josh fumbled with the keys after he sat down and pried around to find the lights for the dashboard.

“You can drive, right?”  Jenna asked.

“Yeah that’s no issue, but I don’t have my own car.  So uh, I might be a bit rusty.”

He took the car off park and slowly eased himself into comfort.  Jenna was able to direct him how to get to her house from the school.  She assured Josh that she had a fun time regardless and she was excited to see them again soon.  They had a goodnight kiss, and Josh waited patiently in the car until Jenna walked inside her house.

From there, Josh remembered how to get to Tyler’s house.  He prayed a cop wouldn’t stop him, and thankfully he was able to pull in front of the Joseph’s driveway.  He felt his heart sink when he walked up to the front door.  He bit his lip when he rang the doorbell and stepped back.

The door opened and he was met with the stern look from Tyler’s dad, “Uh.. Good evening, Mr. Joseph.  How are you tonight?”

“I got an unpleasant call from the school, I was just about to pick up my son from the school.”

“Y-yeah, we figured that would happen.  So he let me drive his car back home, so you didn’t have to worry about bringing someone else with you to get both cars back.”

He narrowed his eyes at Josh, making him shift uncomfortably, “Thank you for that, I think It’ll be best for Tyler and I to have a talk on the way back.  But in the meantime, I can drop you off at home so you don’t have to walk in the dark.”

Josh let out a sigh of relief, “I really appreciate it.”

Tyler walked silently behind his father from the school, holding an icepack to the side of his face.  The doors to the cars slammed shut, and it was silent except for the irritated finger tapping on the steering wheel.

“Well? What do you have to say for yourself?”

Tyler didn’t meet his father’s eyes, “I felt threatened.”

“Do you think the way you approached the situation was the best way?”

“No.”

“Tyler.”

“What?”  He turned, seeing how disappointed his dad looked at him, “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry isn’t going to bring you back to the basketball team this year, and you know what that means.”

“No scholarship.”

“You know you were depending on that, and music won’t get you far.  It never does.”

Tyler winced, “I know.”

He wanted to tell his dad why he did that, he wanted to let him know how much he cared about Josh.  And that he wanted nothing more than the safety of his partners, if Josh got into trouble, he didn’t want Jenna to get involved with it either.  But he couldn't say anything.

Josh had just begun to fall asleep when his phone buzzed right next to him.  He looked at his phone, trying to focus his eyes.

_'hey.'_

It was from Tyler.  Josh quickly typed back, _'What happened? Grounded?'_

_'sort of, more so got yelled at for my stupidity.  but the loss of any sports scholarship is enough as grounded forever.  and the suspension for three school days.'_

_'But guys get into fights all the time and stick to the team, why cant you?'_

_'they don't want people like me on their team...'_

Josh felt a tug at his heart reading that, _‘Tyler’_

_‘i love you josh, you’re more important than a sports team.’_

_‘But you were counting on that, since you needed it’_

_‘it’s okay.  basketball isn’t as important to me as music.’_

Josh was about to begin to reply, but Tyler sent in another message before he could hit send.

_‘i want to make music with you… is that okay?’_

_‘Please’_

The following day, Josh was waiting at his front step.  Tyler was going to pick him up and go to the woods again.  Josh was tapping his feet to the rhythm of the music in his earbuds, watching the end of the street for Tyler to turn into.  It only takes him a few minutes to get to Josh’s house, and before the song was over he could see the familiar car up the street.  Pulling up in front of his house, Josh picked himself up off the ground and walked over to the car.  “Hey, Tyler-”

Josh looked over to the driver, Tyler was wearing a beanie that sank too low on his head and sunglasses.  He wasn’t used to seeing Tyler like that and he almost thought he got into the wrong car at first.  “Hey, sweetie.”

“What, no hello kiss?”  Josh asked jokingly.

“We can, but take your glasses off.”

“ _My_ glasses?  I actually need those to see, what ever happened to gentlemen Tyler?”

Tyler shook his head, “I can’t take off my cool.”

“You call that cool?”  Josh reached over to seize Tyler’s sunglasses, half expecting him to slap his hand away.  Instead he moved his head down and cringed when Josh removed his shades, “Oh my god..”

“Bro, I told you.”

Josh put his hand on Tyler’s cheek and turned his head to face Josh.  He examined his swollen eye, it was dappled with shades of purples and reds.  He was careful not to touch the injured area, but his fingers began to tremble with regret.  Tyler looked more upset now.

“Tyler, I’m so sorry that had to happen to you.”

“Don’t be sorry, if you got punched in the face you’d get a black eye _and_ your glasses would break.”

Josh leaned over to bury his face into Tyler’s shoulders.  It was a bit uncomfortable the way they were sitting in the car, but it didn’t bother him.  Tyler rolled his fingertips on the back of Josh’s head for comfort.  “You can put your sunglasses back on now,” he mumbled, and then pulled himself away.  He sniffled, and blinked hard while putting his seatbelt on.  Tyler’s sunglasses were back on his face and he pulled away from the curb.

The trip to the woods was sooner than Josh expected.  They parked within a small lot that was next to the entrance.  It was empty except for Tyler’s car.

It was similar to the first time in the woods.  Except when they turned the curve in the path, and couldn't see Tyler's car, they walked with their fingers laced in each other.

"No offroading today?" Josh asked.

Tyler sighed dejectedly, "Okay."

They continued to walk through the woods, swinging their hands in the air and kept their feet in time.  Tyler kept a bouncy flow to his step.  Josh couldn't help but let out a small giggle at his childish boyfriend.  Tyler looked up at him and pouted.  Josh laughed louder and leaned in for a kiss, knocking their glasses haphazardly in the process.

Josh could see in Tyler's posture that he wanted to continue.  He ducked his head and reached to take his sunglasses off, but Josh touched his hand to stop him.  Josh instead took his glasses off, and leaned in slowly for a better kiss.  He felt Tyler's fingers run through his hair.  Josh didn't stop himself from doing the same, knocking Tyler's beanie off.  He pulled away to go and grab it, but Tyler cupped his hands on Josh's cheeks.  He sounded breathless, and desperate to keep Josh close.  They kissed again, but Josh felt something was wrong.

"Tyler?"

"Hmm.."

"You're shaking," Josh ran his thumb over Tyler's bottom lip, quivering under his touch.  He shook his head, denying that.  Tyler stepped back a few paces, stopping only met by a tree.  "Tyler, what's wrong?" Josh reached out, "Please."

He was so confused, Tyler put his hand over his mouth.  And he was trembling, tears fell from his cheeks.  Josh wanted to comfort him, but he was afraid he did something wrong.  Josh began to feel teary-eyed.  Tyler stepped forward once, and grabbed Josh by his wrists.  He pulled him close and enveloped Josh into a hug, leaning back on the tree for support.

"Tyler, what's wrong?  Did I do something?"

Josh felt Tyler shake in response, "No."

"Do you need anything?"

Tyler clutched harder at the fabric of Josh’s shirt, "I'm just really glad I met you, and you're so important to me.  I love you so much, Josh."

Josh drew Tyler closer, and tighter, "Are you just really emotional right now?"

"Y-yeah," Tyler squeaked.  "I tried so hard to keep it in, but it hurts.  I don't think you understand how important last night was for me.  And it didn't end in a happily ever after."

"Tyler," Josh's voice was firm and he pulled away to look at Tyler directly.  "It did end well.  We're here, together.”

“I didn’t want to be selfish, I should have asked you if you were okay to be out in front of everyone.”

“Tyler.  Can you slow down, try breathing slower.  Maybe hum a song?”  Josh wanted to do as much as possible to calm Tyler down, burying his head in the crook of Tyler’s neck and rocking them side to side.  He didn’t understand how Tyler all of a sudden broke down and lost his cool, fearing that something happened between the time they last saw each other.

Tyler tried breathing evenly, he could breathe in Josh’s scent.  That calmed him down, rest assured that he was definitely there.  He croaked out a quiet, “Thanks Josh,” before feeling Josh peel himself off, kissing Tyler’s forehead, and finally picking up the beanie that fell on the dirt.  He brushed it off and offered it to Tyler.  Tyler took his beanie and rubbed the edge of the fabric between his fingers.

“Do we need to go home?”  Josh asked.

“No!”  Tyler said quickly, “I wanted to stay out late.”

“In the woods?!”

“Kinda.. there’s a field next to a lake.  I was wondering if you wanted to watch the sunset?”

“I-I don’t know if I feel comfortable with that-”

Tyler pulled out something from his back pocket, “Flashlight.”

Josh blinked with surprize, Tyler was serious.  He clicked the end of the small LED flashlight towards the ground.  It illuminated their shoes, Josh was mildly impressed at the strength of it given how small it was.  “Aw sick dude.”

Tyler shyly grinned, he turned the light off and put it back in his pocket.  Outstretching his hand for Josh, while still holding his beanie in his other.  They both continued walking down the path, veering left where the path leveled out to dirt, and then mowed grass.  The path across the field was cut, leaving the rest to grow freely.  It was a stretch away that they could see the lake.  They could only take one step completely out of the woods for a bug to fly straight into Josh’s face, making him freak out and almost slapping Tyler while swatting it away.  Josh didn’t know what it was but it was large and sounded angry.

“Tyler, I change my mind.  I’m going back.”

Tyler pursed his lips, “That’s okay, maybe some other time.”

Needless to say, Josh hustled back to the car which annoyed Tyler.  Josh sat in the car, covering his hands over his face.  “I’m sorry,” he said as Tyler sat down and turned his car on.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Tyler didn’t give any hint of him sounding disappointed or annoyed.  But Josh still felt like he was being a nuisance.

“See you.. whenever I guess?”

“Yeah, kinda can’t go to school for a few days.”

Josh rubbed Tyler’s shoulder, “Maybe by then your eye’ll look better.”

“Can’t look any worse than that jock’s nose.”

Josh leaned in for a peck on Tyler’s cheek, making sure not to bump their glasses, “See you soon, don’t get too behind.”

Tyler watched as Josh stepped through the front door of his house.  He didn’t pull away from the curb, instead he crossed his hands over the steering wheel and pressed his head in his arms.  He had a headache, and he wasn’t ready for Josh to leave.

Josh forgot how good it actually felt sleeping in a half hour early when you got a ride to school.  He had to take up walking to school for the next couple of days, and once reaching the school, also realizing he got a little out of shape.

His tension rose when he walked through the school doors, the chattering didn’t stop but he felt many eyes follow him.  Josh tried not to meet anyone’s gaze, he saw Jenna talking with her friends across the hall and she waved him over with a smile.  His first sense of relief in the morning, her friends said hi but didn’t say anything else to him.

“Josh!”  a familiar voice rung, Josh bit his inner lip and turned around.  It was Brendon from Saturday.  He caught up to Josh and Jenna and they started walked together, “I got a surprize for you.”

Bendon walked ahead of Josh and Jenna, down the end of the hall, a group of jocks turned the corner.  They stared at Josh and he felt his spine go cold, half expecting Brendon to have betrayed him and set him up for his own amusement.  But then they disappeared from view,  a group of four seniors had stepped off the benches in the foyer.  A short one from the group ran up to Brendon’s side and picked him up, screaming something into Brendon’s ear as he squirmed in his grasp, and he was laughing?

The four seniors stepped in between any potential conflict from the jocks and Josh, he tried peeking over their shoulders, but couldn’t see them anymore.  They probably turned back around.

“Stop, stop!  You’re squeezing my ribs!”  Brendon wheezed out.

“But I haven’t seen you in so long, I missed you little nerd.”

“P-Pete, please!  It’s been like two days.”

He finally released Brendon, who turned around and looked over to Josh and Jenna.  He had a shit-eating grin, and his hair was tousled out of place.  Josh finally got a proper look at the group, and almost caved under pressure.  Standing in front of Josh was hands down the most obnoxious, punk rock kids in the school.  A close-knit group of friends who triumphed over larger groups.  Joe and Andy towered over their two smaller friends, Pete and Patrick.

They were decently fit, especially Andy and Pete.  Patrick had been known for his temperament,  and Joe could scrape so much dirt off of anyone you’d never hear the end of it.  They were smart, cunning, and needed a buffer zone for their shenanigans.  Notorious for shoving one another in the hall when a security guard wasn’t looking.  

Pete walked up to Josh, outstretching his hand, “Nice hair!”

Josh shook his hand, it didn’t even occur to him at first that his bleached blond hair had been dyed pink, “Thanks man, yours looks sick too.”

Pete smiled and waved at Jenna, “Hello,” she said to him.

Josh put an arm around Jenna’s shoulders, “This is Jenna, and I’m Josh.”

“Aw, cute!”  Pete said, putting his arm around the smaller man next to him, “This is Patrick and I’m Pete.”

Josh chuckled at Pete’s mirroring, Pete pointed behind him and pointed out Andy and Joe respectively.  They started walking together in a disorganized clump, too many to fit alongside each other in the hall but too much to talk about with only pairs walking together.

“So Brendon filled us on on what he saw, but I want to hear from your perspective now,”  Pete started.  They were all standing in a corner of a hall intersection, enough room for them all to stand in a circle with room for people to walk around them.  Josh, Jenna and Brendon had their backs against the wall, facing the other four seniors.

“Well, uhh..  we kinda figured out the hard way that this school is filled with raging assholes,”  Josh began explaining, at times not meeting their eyes to think, “And you see, Tyler is well open about himself..”  he felt himself getting nervous trying to put his feelings into words.  “Tyler and Jenna, well Jenna and I…”

“We’re poly,” Jenna pitched in, Josh looked over to her with relief.

“Oh, that’s adorable,” Pete nudged the two to his immediate sides, “Looks like we’ve been living life the wrong way, boys.”

“Bro, this isn’t about us right now,” Joe leaned over to Pete, probably to annoy him with his height.

“That’s chill with us, though that’s the first we’ve actually seen it.  It’s a bit harder for people to understand, like bisexuals,” Patrick said, pointing out to Brendon, who gave a smug grin.  “A couple years ago we saw some kids messing around with Brendon, like this was freshmen year.  All of those kids came from a different school than we did where it was more lax on this topic.  We stepped in and shooed them off.. in polite terms.”

“Since then we’ve been pretty tight, and I started looking out for more people to get in touch with,”  Brendon said, and snickered, “Those fuckers didn’t graduate with a clear history after that.”

Josh looked down at his feet, trying not to laugh, “So you guys have been guard dogs all throughout high school?”

“Oh hell yeah, these teachers don’t give a fuck no matter how many anti-bullying shit they show.  Someone’s gotta step in, and that’s how we made rep,” Joe continued, and Josh noticed a subtle lisp present in his voice.

Pete stepped forward and handed Josh a post-it, it had a string of digits for all of their numbers and the names attached (Josh ignored the little heart after Pete’s name).  A bell rings, signifying there was 5 minutes until class started.

“Hey do you need a ride home you two?”  Pete quickly asked, as the others began walking away without him.

“I take the bus home, Josh walks though,” Jenna said.

“Great!  Meet us by the benches under the tree after school.”

He darted away before Josh could say anything else, Brendon went up behind Josh and Jenna and put his arms over both of their shoulders.  “You guys are gonna be alright now, tell Tyler I said hello,” he patted them goodbye and went in the other direction from the rest of the crew.  Josh was able to walk Jenna to class, them both departing with a hug before he had to race to gym class.

As promised, Josh waited by the shaded benches.  But he was a bit late, he stayed after his last class to make small talk to the teacher.  He wanted to delay any chance of him being first to the meeting point.  But here he was now, looking around anxiously with none of his friends in sight.  He sat at the bench and pulled out his phone, finally deciding to type in their numbers.

He saved the last number and he heard hurried steps behind him.  Josh turned around to see a blur jump over the bench next to him.  Pivoting back in place, he saw Pete land his jump.  “‘Sup dude!”  he said while turning around.

“You made it,” Josh sighed.  Joe and Patrick caught up, but Andy wasn’t in sight.  “Where’s Andy?”

“He’s coming,” Patrick said, while pulling out a hat from his backpack to finally put it back on his head.

A loud white pickup roared as it swung through the pick up lane.  It stood tall from the ground, and an American flag waved from the bed of the truck.  The passenger window rolled down, and Josh saw inside was Andy waving at them with a toothy grin.  He honked his horn twice for them to pile in.

Pete opened the door and crawled in the back first, followed by Patrick and Joe, who pulled back the front seat as he sat down.  There was a lot of shuffling in the back before they could manage to fit their seatbelts over themselves.  Josh easily clicked his in, him taking the spacey front.  The truck was super clean and an air freshener permeated the car.

“All settled in?” Andy asked quietly, Josh was a bit surprised to hear his voice.  It was so soft for a guy who actively lifts and was growing a respectable beard.  They all confirmed they were seated, and Andy began driving off.  They stopped at a stopsign, the same one Tyler picked Josh up in a few weeks ago.  Andy put his hand over his mouth, “Oh!  Almost forgot something.”

He reached over and cranked up his radio, the stereos began screaming and the truck shook.  Josh jumped at the sudden noise, and realized it was heavy metal that was reverberating the car.  He could barely hear the three in a fit of laughter behind him, Andy was just smirking, his eyes hidden behind his shades.

Josh directed Andy to his house, almost having to scream on the top of his lungs at each stop sign.  He turned to wave when he reached his front door, Andy smiled while waving.  Pete violently crawled to the front seat, leaning out the window with his tongue sticking out as Andy sped away.  He wouldn’t be surprised if Pete fell out of the truck like that.  Josh stepped through his front door, still hearing the faint sound of Andy’s music before he shut the door.

“Who was that?”

“Just some more friends I made.”

Josh’s mom was hesitant, “I think I like that Tyler boy better.”

“I think I do too.”

_‘Tyler’_

Josh received a message a little later than he anticipated, _‘what’s up?’_

_‘I made a few new friends today’_

_‘tell me more, dog breath.’_

_‘Yeah, this kid named Brendon also said hi.’_

_‘oh i know him, he’s cool.  i think i know who you’re talking about already.’_

_‘Are you okay with that?’_

_‘of course!  i’m really happy for you too.’_

_‘Sweet, gtg to work now, love you’_

_‘see you soon~’_

For the next few days, Josh got rides to and from school from his friends.  He didn’t fully understand how Joe was able to get his whole entire schedule, but in almost every class there was a new guy in his class ‘aiding’.  More word around the school spread about the new alliance, and everything started feeling normal again and tension was lost.  By the third day back at school, Josh and Jenna were even comfortable holding hands in the hall.

The fourth day was stressful just thinking about it, Tyler finally being amended from suspension.  Josh gave his mom the excuse that Tyler’s car was broken down for that time, instead of fessing up that Tyler was physically rebellious.

The moment Josh sat in Tyler’s quiet car, was just a pure sense of bliss.  He longed for the smell of Tyler and faint chocolate in the mornings.  Tyler didn’t look nervous driving to school, but his voice quivered a bit when they talked over the stereo.

Stepping out of the car into the parking lot, Tyler wasn’t hesitant to hold onto Josh’s hand.  Josh felt confident enough to even lean over and peck Tyler on the cheek.  Tyler twirled his keys in one hand and soaked in the warmth of Josh’s with his other.  Stepping through the doorway, Tyler was barked at by a security guard to take his sunglasses off.

He bit his lip but complied, almost dropping his shades since he was already holding his keys.  Tyler shook his head mockingly when they passed by, and Josh saw his eye wasn’t swollen anymore.  “You look fine, Tyler.”

Tyler looked over, giving a smile of contempt, “I had my sister put makeup on me this morning.  Trust me, I certainly wasn’t a pretty princess this morning.”

They caught up with Jenna who beamed with joy seeing them, she wrapped her arms over Tyler’s shoulders and kissed him.  Josh could only assume Jenna told her friends about their relationship when she did the same to Josh, but ruffling his hair after.  She waved goodbye to her friends as she went to Josh’s other side, they said their farewells, some looking confused.

But Josh didn’t care, his hands were warm and his chest was filled with warmth too.  Brendon walked past them grinning like an idiot, extending his arm in the air and high-fiving Jenna as he passed.  It was easier to walk down the hall, Tyler on his left and Jenna on his right.  He was the red caught in between the blue and black, and he liked it that way.

The stars were poking out of the sky, crackling embers being lifted in the air to join them.  Tyler had invited Josh and Jenna to his house for a bonfire.  The air was chilled, and it was the official last day of Summer.  Tyler sat in his chair, strumming the strings of his ukulele to tune it.  He smiled when he got it just right, the same crooked teeth that Josh saw and fell in love with.  Tyler did wipe away the makeup on his face, thinking it’d make him break out if he kept it in for longer.  Josh just pretended he did that to stop hiding his pain, and being open and honest with the ones he love.

“So this is a song that I totally wrote on my own, just for you two,” he said sarcastically.  This time Tyler was sitting in between Jenna and Josh, both of them had a blanket over their shoulders.

Tyler cleared his throat, and began strumming his ukulele to a slow rhythm.  He took a deep breath, singing “Wise men say only fools rush in, but I can’t help falling in love with you..”

He poured his heart out to sing to his significant others, Josh hugged his knees and listened contently to Tyler’s voice.  He wanted to stay like this forever, paying attention to his voice cracking in a few places and at times his finger slipping.  But he kept on singing, he wasn’t perfect but he didn’t need to be.

Jenna joined in singing, “Like a river flows, surely to the sea, darling so it goes, some things are meant to be…”

Tyler looked over to her, he didn’t break singing but he was so pleased at how their voices harmonized together.

Josh didn’t often sing, but he couldn’t bare to sit in silence anymore.  He heard his smooth voice join in too, “Take my hand, take my whole life too.  For I can’t help falling in love with you.”

They all sang together, into the night sky.  Voices filled with love, and their faces filled with smiles and tears.

 

**Author's Note:**

> To maybe be continued, I honestly could I have some ideas. Shout out to a bunch of references in this fic, and also the song they sang at the end is a cover of "Can't Help Falling In Love".


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